


Destiny Finds Us

by The_Order



Category: RWBY
Genre: AU-Weiss Never Went to Beacon, Bodyguard, F/F, Ruby and Weiss Meet as Adults, Slow Burn, Some Mass Effect References slipped in oops, Team RuBY - Freeform, You'll know what that means later
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-17
Updated: 2019-01-17
Packaged: 2019-10-11 18:59:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 12
Words: 57,577
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17452574
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Order/pseuds/The_Order
Summary: They are a universe, and every star is a story, bound by Destiny. Between these stars, some things change. In one she is blind, in another a soldier, and in yet another a huntress. But for everything that changes, something stays the same. Ruby always defends what she loves, Weiss is always stronger than she thinks, and Blake always runs. Only, what if Weiss never came to Beacon?Originally published (first chapter) 21 September, 2016





	1. 1: Just Business

**Author's Note:**

> Crossposted from Fanfiction. I'm moving my completed chapters here and new ones as I write them. Currently, I have 12 chapters written, but I'm still trying to figure out this site, will update soon. Hopefully.

Weiss Schnee ran her hand across her face in brief relief as she tapped the key that would finalize the document she had been working on for the past hour. After a few seconds, a small popup appeared on the screen confirming the submission. If anything happened to it between now and her next board meeting, it was no longer her fault. She took a moment to relax, feeling a small amount of pride that she had finished the document. Weiss leaned back in her chair, letting her head loll backwards for a moment. She glanced at the clock sitting on the corner of her computer screen; the small numbers read 8:42 pm.

 

_ Another one down...only five more to go... _

 

Deciding that her mini-break was over, Weiss sat up again with a sigh, resolving herself to yet another long night. This would keep her occupied for at least another four hours or so. Not that she had any reason to even return home. There wasn't exactly anyone waiting for her...

 

She shook her head angrily, trying to cure that cold spike of loneliness buried in her heart. She hated herself for it. It had no place haunting her like this. She had responsibilities, things that she  _ had _ to do for the many people affected by her decisions. It was a  _ fact _ . Even so, no matter what she tried, there was always the loneliness, no matter what she did. There was only one thing that ever seemed to help. So now she resorted to the remedy she learned long ago. She buried herself in her work.

 

And, lucky for her, a CEO’s work was never done.

 

**\----------**

 

Knock Knock.

 

Knock Knock

 

_ Knock Knock Knock _

 

Weiss jolted up with a gasp, heart pounding. She glanced around for a few seconds, slowly beginning to recognize her surroundings. She had been laying her head down on her desk, her computer long since fallen asleep along with her. Weiss quickly jiggled the mouse connected to the computer, the holographic screen coming to life a moment later, revealing a mostly-completed document and, more importantly, the time. It was 2 in the morning. The CEO groaned as she rolled her neck, the awkward position had given her a crick.

 

_ I must’ve dozed off while I was working. Well, it’s not the first time. Now why am I awake again? _

 

**_Knock. Knock. Knock._ **

 

_ Ah, yes, that. Who could be knocking at this hour? _

 

Confused and more than a little worried, Weiss got up from her chair and began to make her way towards the door. The second she twisted the handle, the door flew open, pushed from the other side. Her shoulders, which Weiss hadn’t realised were tensed up, relaxed at the sight of her sister, Winter Schnee. “Oh, em, hello Win-”   
  


“Save it, Weiss,” Winter cut her off. Weiss internally winced at the poorly hidden bite of the words. The solder swiftly brushed past Weiss and into the office space. Winter stood in the center of the room for a moment before turning to look at Weiss. “You are a twenty-six year old woman,” she stated simply.

 

Once Weiss realized that her sister was not going to elaborate further, she replied cautiously, “That I am...”

 

“You,” Winter began, pointing an accusing finger at the shorter woman, “are by  _ far _ the youngest person in our family’s history to inherit the lofty position you have here. I know you, sister, and I am more than aware that you are quite possibly one of the most brilliant people on Remnant!” Winter continued her stream of compliments that greatly contrasted the angry tone she was using.

 

Weiss squinted her eyes suspiciously. “As much as I thank you for the praise, what exactly are you getting at, Winter? I have work to do, you know.”

 

That was obviously not what the specialist was looking for. Winter let out a deep, annoyed sigh before saying, “Weiss, I know you are a genius in more ways than one. I know this for a fact, so that begs the question: Why on Remnant are you in your office, doing paperwork, at  _ two in the damn morning?!  _ **_Again?!_ ** ” 

 

Weiss barely hid the surprised expression. Luckily, she had gotten more than enough practice hiding her emotions throughout her life. Even though it was not immediately visible, Weiss knew she was in deep here. She could count on one hand the time Winter sounded this cross with her. Her surprise quickly turned to anger, however, and she spat, “Winter, I am not some child you can chastise anymore. I am a grown women and, more than that, I am the CEO of the Schnee Dust Company. I am more than capable of making my own-”   
  


“Weiss, drop the act,” Winter cut her off, an exasperation clear in her voice. The younger woman was more than a little miffed at being interrupted yet again, but allowed Winter to continue. “I am not one of your employees who is accusing you of doing a bad job, I am your sister who is concerned for your health,” her voice softened, and gained a a s tone of concern, “So, as your sister, why are you doing this?”

 

Weiss didn’t let the concern sway her, though. She stood firm, as she always had. “Winter, there is much important work that still needs to be done,” she motioned to her desk, “and I do not have the luxury to slack on it. As much as I enjoy your company, as rare as it is, I have work to do, and I have to be here to do it.”

 

Winter sighed once more at the predictable response. She pinched the bridge of her nose, trying to alleviate the headache she felt coming on. This was her fault and she knew it. She never should have left Weiss with their Father all those years ago. She should’ve encouraged her to pursue a combat school, should’ve pulled her away from her father and made Weiss to follow after her into the Atlesian military. Maybe she even could’ve gotten Weiss to attend a foreign school, like Haven or Beacon, far from their father and his toxic teachings. If only she had been more brave. 

 

Weiss was always a cold Seclusion was incredibly unhealthy for the mind, and it took Winter years to pull herself from that painful rut. Weiss, though, was forced through that for years more than even Winter, and it showed. Even as an adult, and as the CEO of one of the most profitable companies in the world, Weiss was just as alone and hurt as she was when she was a child. She constantly pushed people away, to the point that the only tangible relationship she had was with Winter, and even that was fairly strained. Their father had changed Weiss. He had broken her in a way that Winter feared was irreparable. Winter was totally unable to help her sister.

 

Even so, at the very least, Winter would make sure that Weiss didn’t tear herself apart in the process. “It is not a  _ luxury _ , Weiss. Rest is a necessity.”

 

Weiss frowned, the crick in her neck still throbbing painfully. Even as she felt fatigue seep into her bones, Weiss defiantly said, “I know that, but what would you have me do? I have a massive workload, and I cannot simply neglect it. The things I have to do are vital to the company and all the people who rely on it,” idly, she ran her hand through her ponytail, which sat just off-kilter on the back of her head, trying to straighten it after it had been mussied by her nap.

 

Winter crossed her arms and leaned back against Weiss’s desk, before saying, “If your workload is so massive that it is unavoidably detrimental to your health, then, Weiss, hire some help! You know as well as I do that it is perfectly normal of people of your standing to have personal assistants.”

 

The younger woman scoffed at that. She shook her head, “As if I could trust someone else with work like this. Even if I could, I’m not going to pay someone just to do my work for me as if I’m some lazy highschooler.”

 

Winter sighed, she moved from Weiss’s desk and closed the distance between them. She rested a hand on Weiss’s shoulder, noting how Weiss almost jerked away from the contact, and said in a softer tone of voice, “Weiss, I’ve been to your home, and I talk to your staff, what little of them are left. I know just how disorganized your life is,” quick to dissuade any kind of misinterpretation of her words, she continued, “You keep everything meticulous so you can hold up appearances, but Weiss,”-she held up a closed fist, and raised a single finger-”You skip meals,”-a second-”Leave the manor incredibly early in the morning, without breakfast typically,”-and a third-”and do things like  _ this _ Weiss! It is incredibly unhealthy, and you cannot sustain this type of behavior with no ill effects. I’m not asking you to hire a glorified secretary, Weiss, I’m asking you to hire a  _ life assistant _ .”

 

_ “What? _ ” Weiss said, a venom in her voice that Winter didn’t predict, “No, Winter, that is absolutely out of the question! I do not need to be doted on like a baby!” She moved her arm to brush Winter’s hand from her shoulder. 

 

Winter let her hand fall to her side, a little dejected by her sister’s reaction. “Weiss, I know you are a grown woman, and you do not need to be doted on. That isn’t what I’m saying.” She took a brief moment to consider how exactly to say what she wanted, before saying, “What I am saying is that you are my sister, and I worry. You do good work here, and I understand that, but I also see that you get...swept up in it sometimes.” 

 

“I do not get ‘swept up’ in my work! I simply decided to stay late tonight so I could have less work tomorrow,” Weiss said, defending her pride.

 

Winter frowned, “Weiss, you sent the security team home for the night. That was the first thing I checked on when I arrived at the building.” Winter changed her posture to a more frontal stance. Manipulating her own body language was a tactic she had learned years ago from the military.

 

Weiss tilted her head slightly, confused at the sudden change of topic. “Well, yes, I did. I wasn’t going to make them stay after hours simply because my workload was large today.”   
  


Winter let out a low hum that caused Weiss’s gut to twist. One of the few things they ever did together consistently through their childhood was play chess. Whenever they had time, they would both get together and play a game, whether in-person, or by some digital means. It was one of the few good memories Weiss had from her home, and she treasured it deeply, which was probably why Weiss recognized that specific hum immediately...

 

That hum meant Weiss was about to be put into Checkmate.

 

Winter’s eyes pierced into Weiss as she said, “I know, just as well as you do, the White Fang are more active now than they’ve ever been. You are their primary target, and here you are sitting, alone, in the dead of night, doing paperwork,  _ with no security whatsoever?” _

 

Fumbling for some form of intelligent response, Weiss said, “Well...their job is to guard the building, not me, Winter. Also, I doubt they would have the audacity to attack this-”   
  


“Weiss, don't you dare finish that sentence,” Winter stated coldly,” If there is one thing I’ve learned through my career, it’s that underestimating your enemy gets you  _ killed _ .” Weiss struggled to come up with a defence for her actions, but never got the chance, as Winter continued, “I walked straight up here with no problem whatsoever. What would you have done if instead of me knocking at your door, it was a group of those armed maniacs?” The Specialist closed the distance between them and jabbed a finger into Weiss’s shoulder to accentuate her point, “What if they would’ve gunned you down in your doorway? Hmm? What if they killed you, tonight? What would you do then? Weiss,” Winter felt herself begin to slip, so she allowed the emotion to show as her voice took on a softer, somber tone, “what would  _ I _ do? You are my sister, and if you died...all I would have of my family is our father and our brother, and they are  _ no _ family.”

 

It touched Weiss. As much as she was loathe to admit it sometimes, she cared about her sister greatly, as she was all that the Weiss had, and she did have a point. Weiss let out a deep sigh and said dejectedly, ”What would you have me do, Winter? I’ll...at least consider it.”

 

Seeing that that was all she would get from her younger sister, Winter brought up her second point, “Weiss, you need some form of assistant. You simply cannot sustain such unhealthy behavior. Also, you have a point. Your security team’s job is not to protect you, but you do need something to help ensure your safety.”

 

The younger woman narrowed her eyes suspiciously as she asked, “Just what are you getting at here, sister?” 

 

“My point is,” Winter began, “Not only do you need a full-time assistant, you need a full-time bodyguard as well.” The older sister watched as Weiss visibly deflated.

 

“Two people, Winter? You want me to hire two people for the sole purpose of being with me at all times? You know I am...less than comfortable around people like that,” a sigh,” You do have a point, though. Do you absolutely, truly, believe this is necessary?” Her voice was soft now, the fire of her previous arguments all but gone. She loved Winter, and she was perhaps the only person Weiss felt such an emotion for. She had never considered her actions could possibly harm her, but more than that, Weiss trusted her judgement.

 

A nod, followed by a simple, resolute, “I do,” sealed the deal.

 

Weiss ran a hand across her face, and leaned her weight against her desk. After a few moments of silence, she said, “Alright...alright, I’ll look into it. No guarantees, but...I will try.”

 

Satisfied, Winter said, “That’s all I ask. Now, come on, Weiss. I’ll drive you home.”

 

Weiss reluctantly agreed, seeing all argument was useless. She couldn’t believe what she had agreed to, and she was sure she would come to regret it in time, but at the moment she was just too tired to fight. She took a moment to gather her things while Winter stood, waiting, by the doorway. With her bag on her shoulder, and her scroll secure in her dress pants, Weiss walked from her office with her older sister by her side.

 

Checkmate.

 

**\----------**

 

The drive to Weiss’s home wasn’t too long, maybe thirty minutes or so. Once they had climbed into Winter’s vehicle, a sleek silver sportscar, and begun to exit the parking complex, Winter turned to glance at her sister. They were only just exiting the final ramp that would lead out onto the street they would take, but already Weiss was asleep.

 

Winter couldn’t help the small chuckle that escaped her. She could see how much of a mess Weiss was, but now, as all the tension was leaked from her shoulders, and every drop of stress passed from her face, she looked peaceful. Content, even. She appeared how she should rightly be: a young woman who enjoyed her life. Winter dared to hope that one day, somehow, Weiss could go back to the way she was before her father had broken her so.

 

Winter loved her little sister, more than anything else in the world, not that there was much competition. 

 

She  _ would _ be better someday, Winter believed that. She had to. Until then, it would be a struggle Weiss would have to fight through. 

 

Twenty-six years of solitude and pain were not so easily repaired, after all. 

 

Though, Winter supposed, it wouldn’t get better until Weiss’s solitude was ended. Maybe she did have ulterior motives in suggesting Weiss hire both an assistant and a bodyguard, but it was all for the best. Until then though, Weiss would continue having to suffer through a pain so familiar she could no longer feel its presence. It hurt Winter to think about, but, at least for now, as soft snores drifted from her younger sibling, there was peace. 

 

She reached over, took Weiss’s hand in her own, and gave it a soft squeeze.

 

She hoped and prayed that her plan would work out, and that maybe the frozen fortress of ice that strangled Weiss’s heart would one day melt, if only partially. Hopefully, this assistant would find a way to soften her sister once again...

 

...oh, she had no idea.


	2. 2: Interviews

Weiss let out a long suffering sigh. That was the eighth person she had interviewed in the last two hours. As the man who had been sitting in front of her for the past twenty minutes began to leave, the CEO ran a hand through her hair. How she had been coerced into this she didn’t know. Her ‘meeting’ with Winter, if it could be called that at all, happened last week. They had later discussed terms on how Weiss should go about hiring the two full-time staff her sister required of her, and had decided, much to the chagrin of the business woman, that she would take a week off of work in order to hire her bodyguard and assistant, and settle them into her schedule. 

 

It had taken an entire week of preparation before she was even remotely comfortable with leaving her company in the hands of her employees without her supervision, as this was by far the longest length of time Weiss had been off since she took the reigns three months ago. She typically did not even take weekends off. She was absolutely not looking forward to this next week. She didn’t  _ need _ anyone else, but she did value her relationship with Winter, so the CEO begrudgingly accepted the situation and resigned herself to the torture that would undoubtedly be the following week.

 

She had decided that on Saturday, which was today, she would hold the initial interviews. In the morning, she would cover everyone who had applied to and qualified for the ads she had put out after her and Winter’s agreement was set up for the role of Weiss’s personal bodyguard. In the afternoon, she would cover the ones who applied and qualified for the role of Weiss’s personal assistant. 

 

So far, there were no glaring issues. In fact, the only thing Weiss could really find to complain about was the fact that so far, everyone who had walked into her personal study today to apply as her bodyguard were all the exact same people. As the next person walked in, Weiss let out an internal sigh. Even before looking up, she already knew what this one would be like. Everyone that walked through that door this morning were all the same.

 

The man sat in front of her. He had short, brown hair, cut close to his scalp, deep green eyes, and a stern face. He was bulky to the point that she could see the definition in his arms even through the formal suit he was wearing. She shook his hand, and she could feel the thick calluses on his fingers and palm. He introduced himself, “Good morning, Ms. Schnee, I’m retired Staff Sergeant Muller, former Atlesian Military Police. How are you?”

 

_ There it is. _

 

Even as she greeted him politely in kind, she internally sighed. So far everyone who had walked through that door had the same, close cropped hair, muscled, brutish figure, was several years older than her, and always,  _ always _ , was either ex-police or former military. It was not as if she had anything against the Police or the Military, quite the contrary actually, and it wasn’t like they were anything but polite, but none of them  _ clicked _ .

 

Before Weiss even realized it, the interview was over, and the man was handing her his resumé and walking out the door. He was nice enough, she supposed. A little gruff, she supposed, but she could probably deal with it, even if she wouldn’t like having him around on a daily basis. She realized that she wouldn’t want  _ any _ person around on a daily basis, let alone two. She would bite the bullet, though. She had promised Winter as much. 

 

Yes, this week would be torture for her. She didn’t want, or need, people around her. People made things complicated. People caused problems. People hurt efficiency. People hurt  _ her. _ She idly realized with a dull, familiar stab of pain in her chest that this would last for much longer than a week. These two people would have to be around the CEO  _ indefinitely _ . 

 

She held her face in her hands for a few moments, relishing the respite from the interviews and wallowing in the fact that she had been coerced by her sister to allow not only one, but two people to come into her home and workplace, monitor her, and practically dictate what she could and couldn’t do. Idly, she realized this was much like the situation with her Father. She had fought so hard to break from her Father’s control, and had only succeeded when she had proved herself and took her Jacques’s place in the company. He had gone on to live through his retirement in a smaller manor on the coast of the southern border of Atlas, leaving the Schnee Manor to Weiss. With the exception of the staff, which Weiss kept as scarce as possible, she had the large property to herself and her solitude.

 

With a humorless chuckle, she realized how history was now repeating itself. Her freedom would soon fade. 

 

At the sound of the knock at her door, she quickly collecting herself. Burying the pain in her chest, she sat up and resumed her posture. Hands folded across the desk, she said, “Come in.” She was more than tired of these interviews, but she kept in mind there was only two more after this one. Weiss knew it would be almost painfully dull though. As the door opened, she expected more of the same. 

 

Imagine her surprise when she got anything but.

 

She had definitely had a woman or two come in earlier, but they were always very ‘masculine’ in stature, toned and muscled, tall, short hair, a few to several years older than her. Always ex-police or former military, just like the men. This woman, however was different. She looked to be fairly young, a few years younger than Weiss even. She was average in height but still an inch or two taller than Weiss in her heels. Even so, she was fairly small statured. The woman was of average weight, unlike the ones who came before her, and had little to no visible musculature to her body. She was dressed in a formal maroon blouse with black trim, along with a business skirt and a pair of flat shoes. Unlike the closely-cropped hair Weiss had become accustomed to, this woman’s hair was more fashionably short. It went down to her neck, and was a dark brown color, and, oddly, it faded to a red color around the tips. The most eye-catching feature of the woman, however, was her eyes. 

 

They say eyes are windows into the soul, and this woman’s were stunning. They were a silver color. Bright, lively and open in a way that was a stark contrast to the world around them at the moment. They looked innocent, sweet even.

 

So, obviously, Weiss was befuddled as to why such a woman was in her office during the applications for the position of her  _ bodyguard.  _ As the woman walked in, Weiss asked awkwardly, if politely, “Um, ma’am, you do realize that this morning we are holding applications for the bodyguard position, and that the applications for the assistant position is not until this afternoon, yes?”

 

The woman let out a light chuckle as she came up to the desk and said enigmatically, “Yep, I know that.” Weiss once more eyed her form skeptically. The girl looked like she couldn’t hurt a fly.

 

A bit thrown off by the woman’s laid back personality and relatively informal language that contrasted so severely with those before her, the businesswoman raised a single white eyebrow and asked, “And...you want to apply to be my bodyguard?” As enthusiastic as she was about this whole ordeal, something about this strange girl caught her attention.

 

“Actually, I’m hoping, if it’s at all possible, to apply for  _ both _ positions, and work them side-by-side if I get the job.” The woman said with a small grin that just barely showed teeth. At Weiss’s confused look, the lady in red extended her hand across the table, and when Weiss took it, she introduced herself with a certain pep to her voice that Weiss was absolutely unused to, “Hello, Ms. Schnee, I am Ruby Rose, retired Huntress of Beacon academy, and business minor.”

 

The CEO realize how misleading the woman’s appearance was, as her grip, though not painful, was like iron, and the faint calluses on Ruby’s hands spoke of years of experience. Still though, it was odd. What was a Beacon graduate doing in Atlas? Why was someone so young and fit already retired? While she was no expert in the lives of Huntsman and Huntresses, she did know that they were typically very devoted to their duty, and most didn’t retire until they fell either to Grimm or the march of time. One thing stuck out to the white-haired woman more than anything else, though. Ruby Rose wanted to apply for  _ both _ the position of her bodyguard and her assistant.

 

If she gave Ruby the job, she would only have to share her life with one other person, instead of two.

 

As absolutely wonderful as that sounded, though, there were questions that still needed to be answered. Her time in business had taught her that, as promising as a situation looked, you must always confirm before taking any risks. Even cautious, Weiss had to make a conscious effort to keep the enthusiasm out of her voice, “Hm, well, as unorthodox as your proposition is, Ms. Rose, I don’t see why not.” Releasing their handshake, Weiss motioned to the chair next to the huntress, “Please, have a seat. Let’s start this interview.”

 

When they were both settled down in their seats, Weiss said, “Well, I suppose I should start off with my most pressing concern. You said you had a degree in business, but that you are a retired huntress? How is that, and, while we are on that, why are you retired?”

 

Ruby nodded politely in acknowledgment of the questions and took a few moments to put together an answer before saying, “Well, I went to Beacon for my training, and part of their curriculum is that you are required to minor in a civilian course just in case your Hunting career falls through, whether that’s because you decide it isn’t for you, have some medical issue that puts you out of the job, or have an injury that makes you unfit for duty...” She talked with her hands, Weiss noted. As she explained, her hands made all sorts of motions and movements that accentuated her speech.

 

_ What an odd woman... _

 

Her attention was brought away from the redhead’s hands and back to her face as she continued speaking, her voice increasing tempo slightly, “Well, I was always kind of interested in business stuff, and I was always really good with numbers, so I figured I’d do business as my minor. I was really good at it, and even though it was a tad boring to me, I enjoyed it. As for why I’m retired...” her face fell a bit, the excited glimmer in her eyes fading too, and her hand curled into a fist over the center of her chest. Weiss assumed she didn’t even realize she had done it. Ruby Rose’s eyes fell to her lap as she said in a more somber tone, “I was hurt pretty bad last year. I...don’t really want to get into it, but I was too hurt to fight in the way a Huntress needs to fight...” she trailed off for a few moments before meeting Weiss’s eyes once more. There was a fierceness in the undertone of the redhead’s voice as she said, “Ms. Schnee, I grew up wanting to be a huntress. My dad was a Hunter all his life, and my mom died in combat when I was little”

 

Weiss felt a pang go through her chest. Very briefly, the businesswoman had a flash to her own childhood. She hardly remembered her mother’s face anymore, but she remembered her smile. She remembered an ‘I love you’. 

 

She remembered blood and fire.

 

Weiss could relate to the pain in Ruby’s eyes more than the redhead would ever know. She pulled her mind out of the past and buried her pain once more, though, when Ruby began speaking again, “It took me a long time to get back on my feet after that. I mean, my aura still works mostly, and I was healed in just about a month, but I just...couldn’t keep going for a while. Only recently I started looking for a job, and I saw you were looking for a bodyguard and an assistant.” Ruby leans forward, resting her elbows on Weiss’s desk, and giving her hopefully future boss an intense look, she said, “I felt I was uniquely qualified for the job.”

 

“Well,” Weiss began, jotting down what Ruby had said on a small notepad of hers,  “Ms. Rose, you said you had an injury? If you are applying for the bodyguard position as well, then I must ask, are you capable of fighting?” Her eyebrow rose at the grin that spread across the other woman’s face at that question.

 

Ruby leaned back in the plush office chair confidently and said, “I can’t fight like a Huntress anymore, with all the flips and jumps and stuff, but I am more than trained and capable enough to fight off everyone in that lobby,” she jutted a thumb over her shoulder towards the door. 

 

Weiss gave a hum of acknowledgement and said, “Hopefully I’ll only need to take your word on that.” Ruby gave an amused chuckle at that. The CEO found herself favouring that girl. Even as she dreaded having someone forced into her life who got to dictate what she could and couldn’t do, this Ruby Rose woman seemed...tolerable. More so that anyone else who had waltzed into her office today, anyway. Not only that, but if she hired Ruby, then she would only need one person. It sounded like a good compromise to her. Even so, Weiss was cautious, and there was much more to discuss before she made any decisions. “You attended Beacon, correct? If I recall, that is down in Vale. Why are you looking for a career in Atlas?” the white-haired woman asked.

 

What mirth Ruby had from her previous comment died away at that. Sighing, she ran her hand over the back of her neck, a nervous or stressed tick, Weiss assumed, and said, “There is...more to my injury than I’ve said so far, Miss Schnee, and I don’t want to get into it, so I guess...I guess there’s just nothing left there for me except for the memories. Coming here, well, I’m just moving forward.”

 

Weiss’s curiosity was peaked, but she decided it would be unwise to pry further, as the woman across from her seemed rather upset by the memories being dredged up. “Well, I believe that is all I need to know about that. There is only a few more questions I have for you,” Weiss said, looking down at her notepad she had been quietly scribbling on throughout the interview. Ruby let out a small huff of breath and closed her eyes. Weiss could see the internal struggle the red woman was having, and recognized it all too well. After a moment, Ruby nodded for Weiss to continue. “You said you minored in business at Beacon? The workload you would have as my assistant is much more complex than a minor would train you for. However adept at combat you are, are you qualified for the work of what is essentially co-managing the SDC?”

 

Ruby gave a professional nod and said, “I took a remedial course in business this past year, and did some online work for the more advanced courses. I may not have a full degree in business, and I realize how absurd it is that I am even applying without one, but I am more than capable of handling whatever you can throw at me,” she tucked a strand of hair behind her ear at the sceptical look her hopefully future employer was giving her, “I can show you at some point if you want?”

 

Shaking her head, the CEO sighed. That may be a deal breaker, but if this woman was willing to show she could do it, then perhaps she could throw together a small test of some sort for tomorrow's secondary examinations, if Ruby made it that far, that is. “Well, I suppose we’ll see. If you have records of your grades or contact with your former teacher, I suppose I can judge your performance based on that.” 

 

Ruby nodded, relieved that the CEO was keeping an open mind, and said, “Yeah, I think I can do that. Is there anything else you need to ask me?” 

 

Weiss thought for a moment, looking at her notepad, then at the resumé Ruby had slid across her desk when she had sat down. Her eyes scanned across it for a moment, noticing also that Ruby had actually  _ lead _ a team of huntresses, until coming to rest on her list of contacts and references. It was the usual list of names, along with their connection to the redhead across from her. It seemed to be the usual list of former professors and previous employers (of which there was only one), but one thing caught her eye. There was only one name that didn’t have either ‘professor’ or ’doctor’ in front of it.

 

_ Yang Xiao Long-Teammate _

 

Weiss was no expert on the matter, but she knew there was four people to a team at Beacon, as there was a time in her early teenage years when she entertained the thought of pursuing a hunting career there, against her father’s wishes. She found it curious that only one was listed, but didn’t question it. This strange woman seem like a decent candidate for the job, but under any normal circumstances, the mysteriousness and lack of business training would definitely be a red flag for such a sensitive position in the company, but these were no normal circumstances. Certainly, they made her decision more difficult, but the one little factor stayed at the forefront of the businesswoman’s mind was the simple fact that she could preserve her lifestyle much easier with only one person tagging along with her.

 

Though the CEO inside of her cringed at the poor reasoning for her appealing to this huntress, the  _ person _ in her scratched and clawed at her to allow her. Perhaps she could find some balance point. She decided there that she would wait until tonight to begin making any hard decisions, after she had narrowed down a list of likely candidates and contacted a few of their references. “Well, Miss Rose,” she began, “this has been an enlightening interview, and you seem to be a good candidate for both jobs. I will consider you for tomorrow's more personalized screening, and we will be in touch. If you pass on to the next level, I will contact you tonight at around seven o’clock.”

 

The retired huntress stood with a polite, pleased smile. “That’s all I ask.” They shook hands, and Weiss once again noticed how firm and calloused her grip was. That strange woman turned to the door, and walked out of Weiss’s office, giving a polite wave as she left. Weiss sat back in her chair, the leather squeaking under her slight weight. That woman was so...unique, especially compared to her competition.

 

_ What an odd woman. _

 

The next candidate walked into her office. Short brown hair, green eyes, gruff voice, thick arms, ex-SWAT. As he sat down, the CEO’s mind was already back on Ruby, the one exclamation mark in a sea of periods. An hour later, she would remark to herself that she couldn’t even recall the man’s face. Several hours later, when the last potential assistant left her office, she found she could not recall any of their faces. Yet still, red hair, silver eyes, and an upbeat, intelligent grin were fixed in her memory.

 

**\----------**

  
  


Weiss stood, alone, in her bedroom. Her hands sat on her vanity, and she stared at her reflection. It was thirty minutes ago that the last potential ‘life assistant’ had left her office, and now she stood in her bedroom. She had taken off her business jacket, and the top few buttons of her dress shirt undone. Her hair was down, flowing down her back like a sliver waterfall. Objectively, she observed that many people would call her beautiful. She knew that many women sought out this beauty, and would be more than satisfied with looks like hers, even with the scar that ran over her left eye, which was what her gaze rested on. She was satisfied with how she looked, as little as it mattered, but she still felt cold. Not physically, but deep inside her. It was a crushing weight on her shoulders, and she began to feel her will crack as it always did in these quiet moments when she had nothing else to do.

 

She felt anger well up inside of her. She didn’t  _ understand _ . She had  _ everything _ . She controlled the single most wealthy and powerful company in the world, she practically had the world beneath her feet, yet something was  _ missing? _ She was one of the most wealthy and blessed people on Remnant, so what more could she possibly want?! With a grunt Weiss shoved off of her vanity, and trudged over to the the small end table by her bed, and stared at the small stack of papers resting on it. She needed something to do to take her mind away from this pain.

 

Briefly, the image of a pair of silver eyes flashed through her mind, and she dug through the pile and pulled out a single paper. It was Ruby’s resume. She scanned over it once more, despite having looked at it enough times today to know all the information it held on the woman. She had called most of the numbers in her contacts at some point during the day, reaffirming from Ruby’s previous teachers her administration skills, as well as one positively glowing, and painfully long-winded, story on her combat skills from one “Professor Peter Port”, but she never touched on her more personal contacts. She glanced through the list, and her eyes caught once more on the name “Yang Xiao Long”. 

 

Reasoning to herself that calling a former subordinate of hers would help her to see if Ruby had the leadership skills she would (probably) need as her assistant, Weiss punched the attached number into her scroll. She certainly hoped this Yang woman wouldn’t find the time unreasonable. The scroll would ring for a few moments, before an upbeat, if slightly confused, voice came through, oddly muffled, as if there was something in her mouth, “Hello? You’ve reached Yang, who is this?”

 

Instinctually straightening her hair, even though there was no way Yang could see her through the audio call, Weiss said, “Hello Ms. Long, this is Weiss Schnee.”

 

There was a dull clack of something hitting the floor, and an expletive Weiss barely heard that sounded something like, “Fuck, my cereal!”. After a few moments, the voice came back into focus, “Uh,  _ the _ Weiss Schnee? Like, big freakin’ billionaire Weiss Schnee?” Weiss heard her voice fade again as she (presumably) pulled the scroll from her face again, and she could barely discern, “Damnit, there’s milk all over the damn carpet-”

 

After moment of quiet confusion on the CEO’s part, Weiss responded, “Erm, yes, that is me. Is this a bad time, Ms. Long?”

 

“No, no, it's fine, just kinda spilled all of my cereal. Damnit that was the last bit of milk, too. Anyway, uh, its Xiao Long, for one, and for two, why is it you called me, of all people? I mean, unless you need something exploded, shot, or set on fire, I don’t really have much to offer...” the huntress trailed off.

 

Weiss cleared her throat and said, “No, nothing like that. Your former team leader, Ruby Rose, is applying for a job as my personal assistant and bodyguard, and she had you listed as a reference. Would you mind if I asked you a few questions?”

 

The business woman was startled by the loud cry of, “Damn! When Ruby said she was going civvie, I didn’t expect that! Just like my lil sis to do the craziest thing she could find. Yeah, yeah, I'll answer some questions. Shoot.”

 

_ Sister? They have separate last names, though. Curious. _

 

“Well,” Weiss began, “you were one of her subordinates, yes? What would you think of her leadership skills?” This was something she had asked Ruby’s professors already, but it was what she used to justify the call, so she felt obliged to ask.

 

“Oh, she was great! She actually got into Beacon a few years early, and a bunch of the teachers thought she was like a prodigy, or something,” the sunny woman said. Weiss was a bit off balance because of the laid-back language Yang was using. It was in direct contrast to the formal speech the business woman was used to. “I mean, I wouldn’t say I was her  _ subordinate _ , ‘cause she never really treated her team in a military-type way, but it was effective for our team, that’s for sure.”

 

Weiss took what Yang was saying with a grain of salt, as the two huntresses relationship was not lost on her. Being sisters, Yang was likely to embellish Ruby’s records to try and help her sister get the job. Regardless, she continued her inquiries, “Alright, how was her academics? I’ve heard nothing but good things from her teachers, but her lack of a hard business degree beyond a bachelor’s concerns me.”

 

“Oh, uh, she kinda struggled with that stuff at the start of the class, if I remember, but she actually really got into it around mid-semester. I guess she thought that stuff was neat. I swear, she must have gotten that math crap from her mom, cause I once looked at some of her work and just got a headache!” Yang said joyfully.

 

Her _ mother? So that’s why they have different names. Dear lord this woman talks like she’s a sunflower. _

 

Weiss didn’t feel the need to ask about her skills in combat, as Ruby had told her already most of her huntress-style combat was unusable after her mysterious injury. Thinking to herself for a moment, Weiss remembered the one question she still had about Ruby’s qualifications that no one else had answered. Apparently picking up on the long silence on Weiss’s end, the huntress spoke up once more, “Uh, is that it? ‘Cause I kinda need to run to the store for some more milk.”

 

Clearing her throat, the CEO responded, “Well, there is one more thing. It’s less of a business question and more of a curiosity, but what of your other teammates? I may not be an expert, but I do know that Beacon trains teams of four, and Ruby seemed to be reluctant to talk about anyone but you.”

 

For several long seconds, there was silence on the other end of the scroll. Weiss’s brows knit in confusion, and just before she was about to say something, Yang cut in, her sunny disposition gone from her voice entirely. Her voice, even through the scroll, sounded hard as stone, “...Goodbye.” The ‘call disconnected’ tone droned through Weiss’s scroll for a few moments before cutting out. She stared at the device in confusion as silence fell over her room once again.

 

Weiss would later call Ruby Rose, and inform her that she had made it to the secondary assessments, and to come back to the mansion at four the following day, as well as a small amount of other candidates. The white-haired woman could hear the smile in Ruby’s voice as she agreed to the time. Oddly enough, Ruby told her goodnight as she hung up.

 

That night, Weiss lay in her bed. She thought back on the previous day. She knew this would be hard for her, having to shoehorn someone into her life like this just to please her sister, but she would force through it. Maybe after a few days, Weiss could convince Winter that it was not that good of an idea. Weiss could hope. That was not what was keeping her from sleep, though. Rather, it was Yang Xiao Long’s reaction to her question about her former team. It was troubling to say the least. Something told Weiss it would take a little more than spilled milk to make her mood do such a drastic one-eighty. 

 

It was nagging at Weiss. It was much too late to try and get in contact with either of the two sisters, not that Weiss would if she could, and there really was nothing she could do to scratch this itch in her. Rolling over in bed, she opened her eyes. She had left her curtains open, so she could see out her window. It was picturesque. The view from her bedroom was one of the few things she truly  _ enjoyed _ about her wealth. Through her window, she could see over the manicured garden her family had upheld since her great-grandmother planted the first rose in it, and into the city of Atlas. The garden looked so beautiful in the moonlight, giving all the rose bushes an almost ghostly white hue, and it was all framed by the twinkling lights of the not-so-distant city. 

 

She admired the view for a moment, before her eyes drifted to something else, in her own room this time. Her eyes found the small laptop computer she kept on her nightstand next to her bed. An idea occurred to her, and she swiftly sat up and pulled she computer to her. Setting the device in her lap, Weiss booted it up. She felt a chill run up her spine, as her thin nightgown did little to protect her from the frigid temperature she liked to keep the thermostat on at night. 

 

Almost urgently, Weiss opened up a search browser and, praying this would give her some insight, typed “Ruby Rose Huntress” into the search bar. After a few moments, the list of results loaded up. There were only a few web pages that fit her inquiry, and Weiss reasoned that school records were technically confidential information, and Huntsman were no longer formally on teams after graduation, so there wouldn’t be anything there. 

 

One item did, however, catch the Businesswoman’s cold blue eyes.

 

It was a small document, entitled, “Incident Report: Ruby Rose” followed by a string of numbers Weiss assumed were a date. Curious, Weiss clicked the link. It was nothing more than a single-page incident report published by the Beacon Academy Huntsman Guild, and had little to no information. Regardless, Weiss scanned through it, noting that is was indeed talking about her potential employee and her receiving a grave injury of some sort. Weiss got a sense that this was something that was trying to be kept quiet. In her admittedly short time running the SDC, Weiss had sadly seen her fair share of documents like this, thanks to her father. She was trying to change it all, but that would take time. Weiss had learned to spot hushed files.

 

She read through it in its entirety, hoping it would give at least some insight into Ruby Rose’s former life. Most of it was just some medical talk Weiss barely understood, and some Huntsman jargon she definitely didn’t understand, but there was one statement in the final lines of the document that almost startled Weiss. Just to be sure, she read through it again.

 

_ It...wasn’t a Grimm that wounded her? _

 

One final time, Weiss read though the sentence, muttering the words as she read, “‘...Huntress Rose stated at her debrief in no uncertain terms that her assailant was indeed, as of the writing of this report, now Rogue Huntress...”

 

_ Who the hell is “Blake Belladonna”? _


	3. 3: Obstacles

Weiss stood silently in a small building on the grounds of her Estate. Previously, it had been a barracks of sorts for her father’s “security force”. It was more like a private army than anything. This was where they were previously based out of, “previously” being the key word. When Weiss had taken over the company and, in turn, the estate, she had laid off almost the entirety of the Manor’s workers, leaving the upkeep of her family home to hardly a skeleton crew. 

 

Weiss knew what the “security” was for. It was an intimidation tactic. Her father showed everyone who came into their home that he could have them killed at any moment. It made him feel powerful. It  _ made _ him powerful.

 

So of course, the first chance she could, Weiss tore it to the ground.

 

Now, the building stood empty, devoid of all human life but herself. She had long since replaced her security force with Drones. Machines like the Atlesian Knights were so much easier to handle that people. Not that she handled them, as they remained in charging stations scattered around the grounds, ready to be automatically deployed should the need arise. Now though, this room of the old security building was abuzz with movement, though none of it was human. She had a small group of AKs constructing an obstacle course to the specifications Winter had sent her in what she assumed was a Gym of some sort for the previous soldiers inhabiting the building prior to Weiss’s inheritance of the Company

 

Winter would be arriving shortly to aid Weiss in the selection of her new bodyguard. She managed to be relieved of her post for the day, no doubt due to her relative closeness with General Ironwood. Whether it was due to a slow week for the Specialist or some other factor, Weiss decided that any reason for the White Fang not bombing one of her trains was most likely a good one. 

 

Winter knew combat much better than Weiss did, for obvious reasons. She had experience the CEO could only approximate from books, so the second opinion would greatly help with the selection process. A brief flash of a memory of silver eyes and a sad smile flitted through Weiss’s mind as she remembered that she was already more than a little biased towards one candidate. She really hoped Ruby proved herself today. Winter would play a large part in choosing who should be the CEO’s personal security guard, though Weiss was still the sole decision maker when it came to picking her assistant. 

 

Granted, she did have the final say for who became her bodyguard as well, but Winter’s approval would make Weiss’s justification so much simpler. The course was almost complete, and Winter would soon be arriving, so Weiss prepared to take her leave of the building. It would be a busy day.

 

**\----------**

 

Today, Weiss and Winter would whittle down the candidates that made it past the previous day’s interviews. It was a simple method of selection. The candidates would make their way through the obstacle course in the fastest possible time. The two sisters would watch on from the second floor catwalk, and judge their performance, eliminating some. Then, they would move on a firearm’s course. Armed with only a pistol, they would shoot a series of moving and immobile targets. The candidates would be rated based on accuracy and time, and more would be eliminated. The final stage of selection would come in the form of a small tournament. The remaining five or so candidates would come back into the gym, but this time would spar on the mat with a series of either wooden weapons or their bare hands. Each loser would be eliminated, until only two remained. Those two would fight for the top spot in the rankings. Those who made it to the final phase, whether they won or not, would be considered based on their ratings in all challenges, and the most qualified would receive the job as Weiss’s bodyguard. As there was no real quantifiable way of judging business skill, Weiss would simply decide on an assistant.

 

Hopefully, this Ruby Rose woman would make that unnecessary.

 

_ I guess I will see.  _

 

Weiss pushed the worry from her mind, deciding instead to let the cards fall where they may. There was nothing she could change now. The only sounds in the wide open room was metal-on-metal, wood, and plastic as the Knights began finishing the construction. With a final  _ clank,  _ silence fell over the room. Weiss felt it begin to weigh on her, and, dreading the cold in her gut, turned and stalked out of the room. 

 

Winter would be here soon.

  
  


**\--------**

 

The gym where the competition would be held was formerly used to train the _ thugs _ Weiss’s father had called Security. Manicured, Militaristic thugs, but thugs nonetheless. It had a new use today. Weiss wasn’t sure why exactly there was a catwalk above the gym. Perhaps it was so her father or an officer of some sort could oversee the training? Regardless, today it’s function was for the Schnee sisters to stand atop it, and watch the candidates’ performance. It ran the length of the walls of the building, and allowed them a clear view of the entire course.

 

Stage one, the obstacle course, was set up to specifications Winter had sent, based off of the design used by the Atlesian Military non-enhanced Special Forces division. The older of the two remembered a course almost identical to this one with an almost morbid sense of fondness, as she had become quite intimately acquainted with it’s colder, muddier equivalent in Fort Mantle, before she was selected to be trained in the use of Aura and Blade as a Specialist. She had ran a course like this hundreds of times, but these people would only get a single run.

 

She certainly hoped for their sake that they had been keeping up with their workouts.

 

The course consisted of several different stages. The first stage is a series of low hurdles, roughly 2 and a half feet off the ground, which leads into the second, a high bar eight feet high that the candidates will be required to haul themselves over. The third obstacle is a 15 foot wall tilted at a steep but manageable angle with a series of scattered handholds, not dissimilar to those of a rock wall. The candidates would have to scramble up the wall, then climb down the vertical back side to continue. Next is a log five and a half feet in the air that the candidates would need to climb up and over to get to the next set of four foot tall log vaults, spaced closely together. They would need to keep a rhythm going over those; Winter remembered how crucial it was to getting a decent time. Once that was completed, the candidates would need to climb a rope suspended from the ceiling of the Gym, a knot tied twenty-five feet up that they would have to touch, then climb back down. The final section of the course was a fifteen-meter dash leading to a flat, vertical wall ten feet high that candidates would need to use their momentum to scramble up and over to the finish.

 

“Well,” the older sibling broke their silence, “this will be interesting if nothing else. When will we be starting?” The candidates were already here, waiting in the lobby of the security building. They would be going in blind, their adaptation to unexpected circumstances a major point of consideration. 

 

Weiss cleared her throat and said, “About now, actually. I’ll call in the first person. ” She turned to the small intercom on the wall, activated it, and called for candidate one to come in. 

 

As they waited, Winter asked, “So, is their anyone in particular you are looking at?”

 

Weiss was quiet for a few moments. She thought about it, and didn’t see any harm in at least telling her older sister. Weiss cleared her throat and said, “Well, there is this one woman. Unlike the others, she is a former huntress, not military or police. She retired due to an injury, but said she is still more than capable of acting as my guard.” She decided to withhold the fact that Ruby would be filling both positions if she was chosen.

 

_ She doesn’t need to know  _ everything _ , after all. She’ll know eventually. _

 

“An injured Huntress...interesting,” Winter said, leaning against the railing, “I’m curious about how this injury will affect her performance. Did she say what the injury was?”

 

Mimicking her sister, Weiss leaned against the railing too as she said, “No, actually. I tried to broach the subject, but it seemed rather unpleasant for her. She assured me several times that it only affected her skills fighting creatures of Grimm, not people.”

 

Winter gave a curious hum. She was about to press further, but fell silent as the first candidate walked in. He was an older man, maybe in his early forties, but had obviously been keeping up with his training. He had close cropped brown hair, and a heavy build. They had been told prior of the three challenges, so neither of the women felt the need to reiterate the instructions. Weiss simply informed him to begin when ready. As he moved toward the starting line, Winter primed the small stopwatch in her hand, beginning the timer as he sprinted towards the first few hurdles.

 

Yes, today would be interesting, indeed.

 

**\----------**

There was only one more candidate left who had to run the obstacle course. The other men, as well as one or two women, Winter noted, had completed the course with average or somewhat subpar times, as was to be expected from this crop. There were a few outliers of course, on both ends of the spectrum, but nothing too severe or impressive. As an out-of-breath ex-Vale SWAT officer walked out of the exit, the older Schnee turned to her sibling and said, “She was moderately decent. That Rose girl is next, right?”

 

Weiss nodded, a bit of trepidation forming in her gut as she said, “Yes, the final one. I have high hopes for her, but I guess we will see.” “ _ What if she fails?” _ Weiss thought, “ _ I don’t think Winter would understand why I want her if she is below the others. What if...no. This is stupid. I won’t know until I see how she does.”  _ Succeeding somewhat in calming herself, Weiss let out huff.

 

Winter noted the frazzled state her sister was in. She gave a suspicious hum, and was about to question her younger sister, but instead fell silent as the double-doors to the gymnasium opened once more. Winter’s eyebrows rose slightly as the woman’s small stature and unintimidating appearance, but shrugged it off when she remembered the woman was a huntress. Her type of warrior could rarely be judged based solely on appearance, as most of their superhuman strength and agility came more from their aura, and less from bone and muscle.

 

Ruby Rose strode through the door, wearing a simple outfit consisting of a blood-red tank top, as well as a pair of mid-thigh length running shorts. Neither Weiss nor Winter missed the holster she had around her waist, but it was too far and too small to see clearly what was in it. Regardless, Winter allowed a single hand to lay on the pommel of her Saber, on the off chance this Rose woman decided to try anything stupid. 

 

Weiss watched intently as her only hope to retain some portion of her secluded lifestyle went through her stretches several feet below her. She actively suppressed any of the nervous ticks she knew she had, and managed to maintain the collected facade she had perfected over the years. 

 

**Ruby**

 

As Ruby finished up her preparations, she walked up to the line of tape on the floor that signified the start line. The huntress looked up to the sisters on the balcony, noting the “casual” way the older one, Winter, she remembered vaguely from some newscast or another, rested her hand on her sword. She pushed away the budding interest she had in the older Woman’s weapon, and instead turned her gaze to her potential employer. Weiss said simply, “You may begin when ready.”

 

Ruby looked out over the course and almost smiled. She had been worried coming into the security building that the course would be some incredibly difficult setup attuned for that of her previous profession. In her state, she knew she would fail at anything requiring the acrobatics she had used during her training years. 

 

The left side of her chest ached, and she rolled her left shoulder to alleviate the stiffness. It didn't help. The wounded huntress pushed the sensation and the emotions tied to it down, and focused on what was in front of her. 

 

She may not be a huntress anymore, but Ruby was confident she could handle this. At least, she hoped she could. As she stretched her arm back one final time, she felt the muscles across her chest contort painfully under the slight stress, and she winced.  _ “Alright, Ruby, you can do this,” _ she thought to herself,  _ “Just favor your right arm, and you’ll do  _ fine _. You saw those guys out there, you used to be a huntress, you can beat a bunch of old army dudes.” _

 

Only somewhat succeeding in psyching herself up, Ruby dropped low into an athletic stance, breathed in, and breathed out. Then she was off.

 

First came the hurdles. Easily, Ruby hopped over each one, using her right arm as a pivot to get over the wooden logs without losing much momentum. Hardly even breathing hard, the Huntress came up to the high bar. Ruby was thankful for the extra few inches she had grown since Beacon, but still had to jump to reach the pole. Grabbing a firm hold of it, Ruby relied heavily on her right arm to lift herself. Swiftly, she heaved her relatively light frame up and over the pole. Landing with hardly a grunt, Ruby sprinted forward.

 

Next was the incline. Foregoing the usual method of slowing down and climbing the steep platform, Ruby instead sprinted, building up her momentum as much as she could, and redirected the energy upwards. She managed to carry herself up about half of the way over the wall. As her momentum began to die, she planted her left foot firmly on one of the rock wall handholds. The huntress used the powerful muscles in her legs built up from years of running to kick off of the small grip, propelling herself to the apex of the ramp. On the opposite side, Ruby noted the handholds leading down the ten-foot drop. She assumed they expected her to climb down.  _ “Too slow,” _ she reasoned.

 

Ruby redirected what little aura she still had into her legs, as simply dropped from the ledge. The ex-huntress hit the ground heavily, and scrambled across the ground to maintain some momentum. Her aura absorbed most of the impact, but a sharp, burning pain lanced through her chest. Gritting her teeth and pushing the pain from her mind, Ruby turned to the next obstacle.

 

It was a log suspended at about her eye height. Leaping up, she managed to hook both elbows over the log. From there, she swung a leg up and simply rolled over it. Landing on her feet, her next obstacle was a series of closely spaced together log hurdles, four in total. Deciding against the direct approach and once again gunning for pure efficiency, Ruby ran forward, jumped into the air, planted a foot top the first hurdle and used it as a springboard to leap over all the rest. The ex-huntress rolled as she hit the ground, successfully avoiding further damage to her chest.

 

She sprinted forward, a small amount of dread forming in her gut as she looked up at the rope in front of her. There was no way she could climb that without stressing her arm. Grimacing, Ruby skidded to a halt at its base, before grabbing hold of the rope. Gritting her teeth and pushing through the tugging, burning pain in her left shoulder and chest, Ruby heaved herself up the thick braided rope. Sweat beaded on her forehead as the awkwardly healed muscles almost failed to keep up with her brain’s commands. She grinned victoriously, as she got to the top, slapping a hand on the knot. Deciding she had managed to save up enough time with her previous shortcuts, and high on the her achievement with the rope, Ruby turned to the two sisters, who were now eye-level with her on the top of the rope and not more than fifteen feet from her. She grinned and gave a cheeky wave, noting the almost shocked raised eyebrows from the CEO and the almost imperceptible smirk on the specialist’s face.

 

She pushed her fledgling aura into her palms, and used her shoes as well as her aura to prevent burns as she slid nimbly down the rope, completely relaxing her left arm. Landing at the bottom, Ruby attempted to roll her shoulder, only to gasp at the sharp pain radiating from the stuff muscles. With the adrenaline draining from her system, Ruby could feel that she had overexerted herself far too much. She then tried to  _ lift _ her left arm, getting the same, crushing results.  _ “Shit, I can barely move my arm. It’s okay, it’s okay, I can work with this. Only one more to go,” _ the ex-huntress thought, as she looked up towards the next item.

 

Dread pooled in the pit of her stomach as Ruby looked at it. It was a wall. The final obstacle was a wall, about ten feet high, with a long run leading up to it. In her heyday, Ruby knew she could easily leap over the wall, finishing the course with no fuss in seconds. Even now, as weak as she was, Ruby could still simply run, jump, grab onto the ledge, and pull herself over. With only one arm, though...

 

_ “I’m going to need a lot of speed. Damn it! ” _ the wounded huntress thought. She took off, using her remaining energy to run full tilt at the wooden wall. Despite having her left arm tucked against her chest, it still screamed in protest at the strain she was putting on her body. She gritted her teeth against the rising pain in her her chest. The burning, tingling feeling from her scarred muscles felt like white-hot lighting inside of her chest, and it slowly worked itself deeper into Ruby, burning and tingling like needles as she squeezed out every last drop of speed she could muster. Suddenly, the burning reached a point, deep within her chest. It was something she knew well, that familiar pit of power buried deep within her heart that she had always relied on throughout her career. It was her aura. It was her  _ semblance _ . Only, as the wall grew ever nearer, the burning found this well inside of the huntress, and it surged through her. There was no burst of speed, no flurry of rose petals, no surge of energy. Her aura encompassed her like it always had before her injury, but she knew what was about to happen. It was the same thing that always happened since the incident.

 

Her aura surged across and through her body, but instead of the childlike exhilaration she felt when she was younger, now all this brought was pain. Her aura burned. It stung like shards of glass had been poured into her bloodstream, and she felt it scraping, cutting,  _ burning _ its way through every muscle, bone, and organ. As she leaped up to the wall and hauled herself over it with nothing but her momentum and her right arm, a shout tore itself from her throat. Landing roughly on the other side of the wall, Ruby Rose, proud graduate of Beacon academy fell to the ground. Her own muscles betrayed her and seized up for a moment. She allowed herself to lie there for a moment, thankful that the wall hid her from her judges. Slowly, the spasms died off and the burning cooled. As the fire and lighting that had replaced the majority of her aura faded from her blood and body, Ruby forced herself to stop shaking. Pushing herself onto all fours, Ruby sat there, panting and gasping. She struggled fiercely to regain the control of her body that abomination of her aura took from her. Managing to force herself up, Ruby stumbled towards the exit. She noted that she was now soaked in a cold sweat. She spared a brief moment to look up at her possible employer and give a thumbs up, before stumbling into the hallway, both proud and utterly disgusted with herself.

 

**The Sisters**

 

“Well that was...interesting.” Winter’s eyebrows rose as Ruby Rose stumbled from the gym. She was impressed by the performance. Though not nearly up to the standards of a Huntress in her prime, the redhead did beat her competition by an impressive margin. The confidence she showed was also a plus.

 

Weiss gave a hum and said, “Yes, it was. How did she do?” Personal agenda’s aside, the CEO was genuinely curious about the ex-huntress’s time.

 

Looking down at her stopwatch, then at the paper she had been writing the times of the contestants on, the Specialist said, “ She beat the next highest by a significant margin, almost ten seconds. I suppose her shortcuts on the wall and he rope helped her along, however dangerous they would be to a normal person. Impressive, but did you see her arm, Weiss?” 

 

“Yes, I did.” The younger woman pushed herself from the railing, and began down the stairs to the gym floor, continuing, “Maybe it has something to do with that injury of hers?”

 

Winter followed her younger sister down the steps as well, and said, “That would make sense. I don't think it will be much of an issue, but I suppose we’ll see in the next few tests. What I’m more curious about is what happened there at the end.”

 

“When she screamed?” asked Weiss, as the began making their way side-by-side towards the exit of the gymnasium.

 

Humming in affirmation, the older sister said, “Yes, that. It could have been just exertion, but I don’t think so. Did you notice how she began to speed up just before the started yelling?”

 

Weiss nodded while they passed the rope, “I did. Odd. It’s almost as if...” her voice trailed off as something caught her eyes. It was a small object sitting in the floor, its dark color sticking out vividly on the pale blue floors. She walked towards it, stooping down and picking it up in her hand.

 

“What is it?” Winter asked, looking over her shoulder. Seeing the item, she remarked, “Where did  _ that _ come from?”

 

Weiss shook her head, brows furrowed, “I don’t know, maybe one of the candidates dropped it.” Something told her that wasn’t the truth though. Something about the item seemed...off. Almost unsettling. Her brows furrowed.  _ “Hmm...curious,” _ she thought. 

 

Winter stood and began walking towards the firing range, and just before Weiss followed her, she looked back at the item.

 

Sitting in the palm of her hand was a single brown, wilted rose petal, dull and dead. Weiss attempted to run her finger over the usually velvet soft surface, only to find it dry and rough. As the slight pressure of her finger fell on the dead pedal, it crumbled to dust in her hand.

 

The remains of the petal slipped from her hand as she stood and followed her sister towards the range for the next test.

 

Neither of them noticed how the remains faded into nothing but aura as the petal hit the floor.


	4. 4: Guns and Blood

Ruby sat in a small chair outside of a door in dimly lit hallway. Her elbows were on her knees and her forehead rested in her palms. Her breathing had calmed down and her body had stopped shaking, but the anger and shame had yet to fully dissipate. She hated what she was now. She could remember so vividly the sensation wind in her hair, the feeling of crying out her joy as she soared over the tops of trees. She could still feel the buck of her weapon in her hand, only enhanced by the dull thudding of gunshots coming from the firing range beyond the door. Ruby could remember what being a huntress was like, and that made her pain all the more crippling.  _ ‘Falls from grace, I guess,’ _ she thought to herself. 

 

Ruby had dreamed of being a huntress for so, so long, ever since she was just a little girl. She had fought her whole life to fulfill that dream, only to have it snached away, after-

 

“Hey, Huntress.”

 

Ruby looked up, pulled from her thoughts by the gravelly voice across from her. The man was sitting a few feet in front of her in a chair similar to hers. He had deep-set eyes, a thick beard that was just starting to show grey hairs, and a heavy wool beanie on his head to drive off the Atleasian cold. The bridge of his nose was broken to one direction, and he had a deep scar just barely visible on right cheekbone above his beard. She met his dark eyes, and he said simply, “You shouldn’t be here.”

 

One of Ruby’s eyebrows raised, and she asked suspiciously, “I’m sorry?” She sat up straight in her chair, and crossed her arms over her chest, hiding the wince as her still-aching chest muscles pulled awkwardly.

 

“I said you shouldn’t be here,” the old soldier repeated, “This isn’t some heroic bullshit you people deal with. So, you shouldn’t be here. This job isn’t for a huntress like you.” He leaned forward, continuing, “You’re not gonna be saving people, do you know that? You very well may have to hurt someone, and I highly doubt you can do that. “He jutted a finger at her, “I know you Huntresses, and you’re all caught up in your own little fairytale. Someone as naive as that isn't cut out for this.”

 

Maybe a few years ago Ruby would have been offended, but now, she knew. She had seen his kind before, too. She let the insult, which her sister would have re-broken the man’s nose over, roll off her back. She understood more about the world than this man knew she did, but she also knew she would never convince him of that. As the gunshots died off, the door opened, and Weiss Schnee stepped out, saying, “Sergeant McTavish, you’re next.” She then retreated back into the range. 

 

Ruby offered a small smile, and said simply, “I guess we’ll see,” but her eyes flashed threateningly, in a way she knew McTavish could see. He held her gaze for a moment before standing up and walking wordlessly to the door.

 

After a few moments of silence, a gun fired, then fired again. Ruby sat back in her chair and sighed. Her hand ran over the holter she had strapped to her hip, and gave one last thought to the smell of wind, sweat, and gunpowder of her past before focusing on the present. She pushed the sadness out of her mind like she had trained herself to do over the past several months since her life was turned on its head. The huntress brushed a lock of short, red hair behind her ear, and stood. She massaged her eternally stiff shoulder, and prepared herself for the task ahead.

 

The gunshots finished, and, after a moment, the door opened. Weiss Schnee stepped out into the hallway entirely this time. Ruby’s eyes passed up and down her form for a moment. She had seen the white haired woman on television before, but never really committed her to memory. She was a beautiful woman with a regal air about her. Long legs hidden by a pair of white dress pants, a white business jacket over a light blue blouse that complemented her stunning blue eyes. She had long, flowing platinum hair and a smooth face. She stood straight and proud, not a single muscle moved without the white haired woman’s command.  _ ‘She looks like a living ice sculpture.’ _

 

Briefly, Ruby’s eyes caught on the seemingly only imperfection on her hopeful boss: a pink scar running down her left eye.  _ ‘How did that happen to a cushy business woman?’ _ Ruby wondered. She, of course, knew of all the recent violence caused by the White Fang, but in her years training to be a Huntress, and her relatively short time as one, she had seen her fair share of scars, and had a few of her own.

 

That on looked old, much older to have been caused by a recent attack.  _ ‘Definitely not caused by an explosion, too. Looks like a blade, but that’s not the White Fang’s MO. Weird,’ _ Ruby thought. She then truly met Weiss’s eyes. The CEO held her gaze for a moment. There was a certain weight to the younger Schnee’s gaze, as if trying to convey some unheard message. Whatever it was, Ruby didn’t understand. After a few moments of just staring, the businesswoman piped up, “It is your turn, Ms. Rose. Follow me.”

 

Ruby shook out her arms and breathed out huff of air, fully putting herself in the moment. In an attempt to familiarize herself to her hopeful employer, Ruby said, “Good, I’ve been looking forward to this part of the test.” 

 

Weiss turned and walked to the door, pausing briefly before opening it. The huntress noticed the ice sculpture of a woman crack, showing a brief hint at humanity beneath all the etiquette. Ruby had trained her hearing and perception over the years to a fine, razor edge. She heard the icy woman let out a sigh that would have been inaudible had Ruby not been there, before she said cryptically, “Well, I certainly hope you live up to expectations,” and disappeared behind the door. After a moment, Ruby followed after her.

 

There was work to be done.

 

**\----------**

 

The shooting range was an impressive setup. For an indoor range, it was incredibly large, so much so that Ruby didn’t doubt that she could use it as a small rifle range. Winter Schnee stood by the shooter’s position, behind a small table. Ruby followed Weiss to the table. Upon it was a few non-reloadable ‘magazines’ as well as a pistol. Winter picked it up by the barrel, and held it out towards the retired Huntress, saying, “The standard Schnee-Manufactured Security pistol, used by nearly every police force on Remnant. I trust you are familiar with it?”

 

Ruby took it from the Specialist, her nose wrinkling. It was an ugly contraption, in her mind. It propelled caseless rounds using dust batteries contained in the grip of the pistol, showing several tubes across the surface of the gun. Ruby was more than familiar with the pistol, with the way it kicked like a baby rabbit, how there was almost no moving parts, and how it lacked the satisfying noise of a shell casing clattering against the ground. It was a wholly unsatisfying weapon to fire. The ex-Huntress set the pistol back on the table and looked to the Specialist, saying, “Yes, I know all about it, but I’d prefer to use my own, if that’s okay? I like the more...conventional guns, you know? ” She tapped the black nylon holster on her hip. 

 

Winter looked to her sister for a moment, who shrugged. “I don’t think that will be a problem,” said Winter. Ruby nodded and moved up to the firing line, standing behind a waist-high table that ran the length of the room, and facing downrange. Winter took a small remote from her pocket, and stood by as Weiss said, “You will be shooting at a series of wooden targets as they appear. They will appear in groups of five, and you will have thirty-five rounds to hit as many targets as you can. You will be timed.”

 

The older Schnee sister added, “Luckily for you, we stock several types of ammunition on the shelves beneath the firing counter, so load up beforehand since you won’t be needing the caseless ammunition the Schnee Pistols use.”

 

Ruby nodded, and bent over to pull out a blue box of forty-five ammunition and a few magazines. As she loaded her bullets into the magazines, she said, “It’s been too long since I’ve been on a firing range. I know this is for business, but still, I’ll enjoy this.”

 

Winter gave a small hum, and was silent. A bit put off by the cold demeanor of the sisters, Ruby loaded up the last clip silently. As she set down her final clip on the table, she turned to look at the younger of the two Schnees, who picked up a stopwatch from the table and said simply, “Begin when ready.”

 

Ruby gave the platinum haired woman a grin and turned back towards the range. Pushing her mishap on the obstacle course into the back of her mind, Ruby focused instead on the obstacle before her now. She slipped her own pistol from her hip, looking over it for any imperfections before she began. From behind her, she heard the older Schnee speak up, “Hmm, that’s an older model, where exactly did you find that?”

 

Ruby grinned. She always did enjoy talking about her guns. “I made it, actually. The base for it was nineteen-eleven, but I modified the design.” She turned around, briefly forgetting the course behind her in favor of explaining her choice in firearm. Winter, moderately interested, maintained a professional facade, but did move closer to better observe the pistol. “I used a stronger metal than the old model, which wasn’t sturdy enough for most dust rounds, as well as added the coloring.” She turned the gun in her hand, and held it up for the two sisters to see. 

 

Ruby could see the hidden interest in the CEO’s eyes, something she saw frequently when explaining her arsenal to people who weren’t usually around guns.  _ ‘Looks like she’s more human than she wants us to believe,’ _ the ex-Huntress thought to herself, before turning her attention back to her chosen weapon. The body of the gun was a vivid blood red with black accents. The grip of the antique-modeled firearm was a deep, midnight black, and along the left side of the slide in stylized black italic print was the word “ _ Rosebud _ ”.

 

Winter gave a small hum before saying, “You certainly picked a decent model to base your sidearm on. Let’s see how you handle it.” Ruby understood, that was her queue to get back on track with her demonstration. Looking her potential boss in the eye once more, Ruby turned back to the range. With practiced ease, the redhead slid a magazine into place, chambered a round, and extended her right arm out, pointing the gun downrange. Her left arm was loosely hung by her side. “One handed?” Winter asked, surprise hidden in her voice, “That is a powerful gun, and you are going to shoot it one handed?”

 

A small chuckle rose up Ruby’s throat, and she said, a laugh audible in her voice, “You should see my  _ other _ gun.” She didn’t see Winter’s reaction, as Ruby immediately thumbed the safety on her gun and said simply, “Ready.” 

 

After a moment, five targets popped up from hidden slots in the floor. A smile spread on Ruby’s face. This was no hunt, these were no Grimm, and she wasn’t helping anyone, but  _ damn _ if it didn’t feel good to shoot again. Rosebud barked five times in quick succession as Ruby shook the rust off, having only shot sparsely over the months since her injury. She dispatched the first group of targets with a practiced ease. In the brief lull before Winter sent up the second set, Ruby took in a deep breath, letting the sweet scent of gunsmoke fill her lungs.  _ “God, I missed this,”  _ she thought to herself. She let everything disappear, there was no job on the line, there was no injury on her body, no Schnee sisters standing behind her, there was only her, the scent of gunpowder, the buck of her pistol in her hand, and the soft, pleasant clattering of brass shell casings on the tile floor.

 

The next set appeared, and was just as quickly put down. Five bangs, five smoking holes in the head of the body-shaped targets, five more shells on the floor. In the blink of an eye, her gun had a fresh clip, and was shooting again almost before the next set had a chance to present itself. It was so much easier to do this, to just shoot, without a care in the world. No snarling Grimm in her face, no terrorists or criminals screaming and firing back, just the report of the gun in her hand, the thud of .45 rounds impacting on the backstop, and the brass on the floor. She felt almost serene. All too quickly, thirty-five rounds were downrange and the timer was halted. Ruby thumbed the safety, set Rosebud on the table, and let out a pleased sigh.  _ ‘Back to reality, I guess,’ _ the ex-Huntress thought, before turning around.

 

There was a smile on her face and a phantom ache in her right wrist. The younger of the two’s eyebrows were raised, impressed. Winter had a small, yet pleased smirk on her face. Barely a quirk of the lips, but Ruby could see it. It was an microexpression she had become good at spotting at Beacon, thanks to her sister’s partner. Thankfully, Winter pulled Ruby from her thoughts by saying, “Consider me impressed. I couldn’t have done better myself.”

 

If it was at all possible, Ruby’s grin spread further. She gave Weiss a knowing look as she said simply, “Well, I certainly hope I lived up to expectations.” The younger Schnee gave a small huff that Ruby couldn’t tell if it was amused or annoyed. 

 

Regardless, Weiss said, “You certainly did, but there is still another stage you must go through. Collect your things and go back to the gym. We will be waiting.” The two women turned and left, Ruby not far behind them. The three women walked back to the gym, Rosebud still warm against Ruby’s thigh.

 

**\----------**

 

The three women entered the gymnasium to the remaining ten or so potentials. They were all standing in a loose group, and Ruby moved to join them. She didn’t miss how the man from before, McTavish, if she remembered right, tracked her with his eyes all the way to where she stood. She didn’t meet his gaze. The silence was broken as Weiss stepped up in front of her sister and addressed the group of former warriors and peacekeepers, “This will be the final stage of the selection process,” she motioned towards a large mat on the floor a few feet away from the end of the obstacle course, as well as a rack of what appeared to be an assortment of wooden and plastic hand-weapons, “A small tournament between the rest of you. Whoever wins said tournament will be most considered for the position, but remember, victory does not mean you are guaranteed the job. Good luck.”

 

She stepped back, and Winter drew a scroll from her pocket. Expanding it into it’s tablet form, she said, “The winner of a match is determined by the first strike. Select your weapons from the racks over there, and the first match is between Retired Corporal Samuels and Retired Officer Burton. Step onto the mat when ready.” At that, she turned around, and the two sisters walked and stood by the mat. As the men and women dispersed to find a weapon and get ready for their bout, Winter checked to make sure the medical crew she had waiting just outside the gym were ready, just in case. “I'm curious how Miss Rose will do, what with her injury,” the older sister wondered. 

 

Weiss simply shrugged, hopeful now. After Ruby’s performance in the shooting range, Winter seemed to have taken an interest in Miss Rose as well.  _ ‘Though probably not for the same reasons as I,’ _ Weiss thought. She felt a bit guilty keeping her real motivation for rooting for the huntress from her sister, but it was for the best. “I don’t know, but I suppose we will see. ” The conversation ended there as two people stepped onto the mat, and Winter watched on, acting as a pseudo-referee for the sparring matches. Weiss was uninterested, her hope lied elsewhere.

 

Though she acted indifferent, she was more than a bit anxious. She scanned the crowd, and found her best hope at evading Winter’s attempt to change her lifestyle pulling a weapon off the rack.

 

Ruby bounced the hardened plastic military-style combat knife in her hand. It was weighted to have the balance of its lethal counterpart, and Ruby was satisfied. She had used one of these during her hunting career as a utility knife, and a combat knife when the situation required more subtlety than her main weapon. The redhead was a bit worried, as she hadn’t practiced in months, and unlike her shooting, hand-to-hand combat wasn't exactly as ingrained in her as her guns. A hand reached past her, grabbing a knife from the row. 

 

Taking his knife, McTavish walked away, grunting out a simple, “I hope we meet on the mat, Huntress.” He walked away, and Ruby frowned. She wasn’t sure what  _ exactly _ he had against her, but she never did like generalizations. From what he said before, it seemed like he just hated Huntsmen for some reason.

 

_ “I know you Huntresses, and you’re all caught up in your own little fairytale.” _

 

_ ‘He thinks we aren’t real warriors, because of how romanticised we are. He’s partially right, but still,’  _ Ruby concluded. It made her a bit angry. He didn’t know anything about what she’d been through. She ended that line of thought before it started. She never did like remembering.

 

“Next up, Retired Huntress Ruby Rose and Vale SWAT Officer Derrick.” Winter spoke, over the relatively quiet group of candidates. Ruby pushed her way toward the mat, knife in hand. She held it in her right hand, and as her opponent, a muscled dark skinned man wielding a wooden saber, stood across from her, she flipped her knife into a reverse grip, and held it at her side. Winter said, “Begin,” and she began circling. Derrick took a step forward and swung at her. The strike was just intended to test her defenses, but Ruby never was one to play by the rules. Semblance or not, Ruby was still very fast. Instead of blocking or dodging, Ruby ducked under the swing, kicked forward, and planted the tip of her knife lightning fast underneath the man’s solar plexus.

 

“Damn it,” he said under his breath. He walked off the mat, to the opposite side that the losers were standing at. Ruby walked back to the weapon rack, but didn’t miss the approving look on the sisters’ faces. She felt a small amount of pride at having an impression on her judges. Ruby stood by the side, and for the next few minutes, she watched the bouts, analyzing and taking note of anyone who was particularly dangerous. McTavish more than anyone else.

 

He was very aggressive and strong. He focused on throws, too, tossing his opponent to the floor before finishing them off. As physical as he was, Ruby saw a keenness in his eyes that showed he was more than a brute. Over the next hour, he won almost every fight with ease, but so did she. As it stood, it looked like they would face each other after all. 

 

**\----------**

 

“Now, for the final round,” Weiss said, this time, “Retired Sergeant McTavish versus Huntress Ruby Rose. Begin!” In an instant, every muscle in Ruby’s body tensed up. She stood with her knife in a reverse grip in front of her, staring down McTavish. He stood in a low stance, his knife, identical to hers, held in a normal grip and crouched low, square with her. 

 

          They were both sweaty from the fights they had already completed. They were tired, but Ruby was nowhere near spent yet, and by the look of things, neither was McTavish. 

 

He moved first, going for a quick stab at Ruby’s sternum, she lunged forward, to the side of his blade, getting into his guard. She spun past him fluidly, going for a stab at his kidney, a move that had eliminated a few before him, as she went by. Almost without looking, her turned with her and parried her stab. 

 

_ ‘He’s been watching me too,’  _ she thought as she darted away. They began to circle each other. The next move is made by Ruby, who darts towards him, and makes a swift swipe for his jugular. She knows what his first reaction will be, so as he moves to block the slash, Ruby instead feints, pulling her arm back and using her momentum to swing around and deliver a sharp kick to his stomach. He grunted and stumbled back. He recovered quickly, though, too quickly for the huntress to press an offensive.

 

They continued circling. He took a step forward, and Ruby saw the stab coming from a mile away. The blade was thrusted towards her face, a move Ruby didn’t quite understand. Maybe in her heyday, Ruby would’ve realized why he was using such an odd attack, and reacted in kind, but this was not her heyday, and she was more than a little rusty. As she ducked down and to the right, she realized her mistake all too late. He knew her style, and knew her tendency to duck forward.

 

Even as the knife brushed past her ear, a heavy fist impacted into her ribs. It was a dirty move, but effective nonetheless. Her breath rushed out of her, and she stumbled backwards. He followed her, pressing the advantage. Still reeling from the hit, she took a desperate stab at his chest. It was sloppy, and she overextended herself. McTavish ducked underneath the wild stab, and caught her arm, hauling her over himself and slamming her into the ground. 

 

What little air she had regained rushed from Ruby’s lungs, and she struggled to simply breathe. She didn’t have a chance to recompose herself, because as soon as she could open her eyes, McTavish was over her. He straddled her stomach, and plunged his knife with both hands at her neck. Purely on reflex Ruby managed to catch his arms. Her forearms were braced against his. He beared down with all his weight onto her, and she barely managed to hold him at bay. Very slowly, the knife crept closer and closer, and the Huntress craned her neck to maximize the distance between the wooden blade and her jugular. The muscles in her chest began to cramp as the stress on her injury increased. It's burned like fire. 

 

Then he began to speak. His face was less than a foot from hers as he said, his voice strained through their locked arms, “You shouldn't be here!” Her arms faltered another inch, “You Huntsmen are all the same!” Her chest and shoulder flared again, and she lost another centimeter. Even so, she gritted her teeth, refusing to give up. “You don’t know how the world works, and you are all so damn  _ soft _ !” The knife was growing ever closer. “You don’t know what the world even  _ is _ ! You aren’t willing to do what’s necessary to survive!” A millimeter now. “You can’t even hurt  _ me _ !” He leaned over his knife, his face filling Ruby’s vision, and said, “Go back to your little Fairy Tale, Huntress, and let the soldiers work!”

 

He beared down on Ruby even harder, the knife tip almost brushing her jugular, but her eyes strayed, and met his. There was a layer there, beneath the anger. Underneath the hate and rage, she saw a strange sadness. There was fear in his eyes, an inward facing, twisted fear. Ruby had seen those eyes before, that fear, the anger held up like a thorny shield to protect through pain. Yes, she had seen those same eyes before. For a moment, she seemed to travel back, where she was in a near identical position. There was only one difference: the eyes weren’t the deep, pained brown of past tragedies...

 

They were a vivid amber.

 

_ Golden, almost. _

 

Suddenly, Ruby’s expression changed. The strain she was putting her body through no longer reached her face. McTavish saw her face change to one of a calm, simmering type of determination.  Gunmetal eyes met Brown, and Ruby Rose spoke simply, “You don’t know me.” With all the strength she could muster in her right arm, the huntress redirected the knife away from her throat and allowed the Soldier’s force to slam towards her. She bucked her head up to meet his, and bashed the bridge of his nose with her forehead.

 

With a wet crunch followed by a startled, pained scream, McTavish rolled off her of, clutching his re-broken nose. Blood spattered across the redhead’s face. It was dirty, it was violent...

 

_ ‘It was necessary,’ _ Ruby thought. He screamed, and writhed on the ground in pain. Scrambling, Ruby scooped up the knife from the ground, and, heedless of the blood now running into her eye, jammed the plastic blade into the soldier’s stomach. McTavish’s shouts died down into a series of groans. Ruby heard over the roaring in her ears Winter calling the medical team to cart him away. The Huntress stumbled onto her feet, and turned to look at her pair of judges. Weiss’s eyebrows were raised in surprise and mild shock, whereas Winter wore a satisfied smirk. Ruby wiped the blood away from her eyes, and couldn't help but smile, flush with her victory. 

 

**\----------**

 

Winter was pleased with the performance. This retired huntress showed talent in all regards, and in her final move, proved to the specialist, if unintentionally, that she was just ruthless enough to do what she had to, but not so much as to be viscous. It was an even grey area she always looked for in picking operatives, and she felt it would work wonderfully with defending her sister. Not only so, but also Rose’s personality. The lightheartedness she had shown on the range and on the course would hopefully help heal her sister’s scars left by their father. The risk posed by the redhead’s injury was a one Winter was uncertain about, and felt a bit uneasy allowing Ruby this job, but felt the reward outweighed the risk. She looked at her younger sibling out of the corner of her eye.

 

Winter Schnee was never a very religious person, but right now she prayed that she was making the right choice. Winter looked back to the winning contestant. What a sight she was. Sweat made her hair stick to her brow, and the knife was still clutched in her hand. Blood was splattered across the upper portion of her face, and her breath came in pants, yet there was a smile on her face. “Miss Rose,” the older sister said, “it appears you have won. Congratulations.”

 

Weiss stepped forward, and gave her possible savior a meaningful look, before addressing the crowd, “That will be all. Calls will be sent out later tonight to you all, informing you of whether or not you will be hired. You know where the door is. Goodbye.”

 

**\----------**

 

Weiss sighed. She sat on her bed. It was seven o’clock that night, and she sat with her scroll in her hand. Winter had left about thirty minutes ago, and would not be back for some time. She was being deployed to Vale, and had said not to expect her back for at least three months. Weiss hated to see her sister go, but it was the life she had chosen. Not for the first time Weiss wondered what her life would be like if she had pushed just a little harder to train as a huntress. 

 

She shook her head, dispelling that thought. It was useless to dwell on what-ifs. She glanced back down to the screen of her scroll, and the number she had already typed in. She sent out the calls to the rejected many already, now all she had to do was call her personal assistant-to-be, as she and Winter had decided, much to Weiss’s relief. Fear gripped her now, though.

 

Even if this was the lesser of two evils, the CEO would still have her reality altered. Solitude was the only constant in her life, and now even that would be restricted by giving power to another woman over her. She had no idea the effects of this change, and it was that fear of the unknown that stilled her hand above the call button. She could still veto the idea. She could tell Ruby Rose that she also would not be hired, and continue on in freedom. 

 

No, she had promised Winter she would at least try. Ice formed in her gut as she thumbed the green call button, going past the point of no return. She remembered the pain of having someone over her. She didn’t ever want to feel so damn helpless ever again. All those years under her Father’s control had changed something inside of her, and she was scared of what allowing this Ruby Rose woman a modicum of power would do. Doubtlessly, she would lose the one thing that kept her sane. 

 

Working like she did was the only thing that ever helped push back that crippling ice inside of her, and she feared that pain. As the years grew longer, Weiss felt that pain and fear grow only stronger, and the CEO was absolutely terrified of what losing her only remedy for it would do to her. She forced those thoughts out of her head, though. She had to follow through with this, for Winter if nothing else. She brought the phone up to her ear, and listed to it ring.

 

Finally, after a few seconds of pained anticipation on Weiss’s side, a voice spoke up. “Hello?” 

 

“Miss Rose?” Weiss asked, wanting to be totally sure she had called the correct person, and was definitely not stalling.

 

There was a quiet hum on the other end of the line, before, “This is she.”

 

Weiss cleared her throat and said, “This is Weiss Schnee. Return to my home tomorrow at twelve o’clock, and we will discuss any remaining details. You’ve got the job. Welcome to the Schnee Dust Company.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don’t forget to review, it helps a fuckton with motivation and actual help, critically. I can’t wait to see what you all think of this chapter, and those to come. It will be rife with awkwardness, but what good story isn’t?
> 
> -Order
> 
> Update (6/22/2018): Grammar and flow changes, fixed a few things with the fight scene. Finally, finally, fixed the part where my stupid ass had Ruby loading 9mm into a pistol chambered for. 45 ACP.


	5. 5: Contract

Winter sighed and ran her hand down her face. She was slouched in a plush chair onboard her personal airship, a scroll sitting open in her lap in tablet mode, an unsent email on the screen. She glanced out the window to her right. The airship had only departed minutes ago, in the wee hours of the morning. She could see the gleaming lights of Atlas shrinking beneath her, and she sighed. This was one of the few places she allowed herself to abandon her usual stiff posture and militaristic attitude, as she was all but alone. The only other living person on board was her pilot, who never left the cockpit while they were flying. It was one of the few places where she felt confident in her solitude. 

 

Soon enough, a voice rang through the speaker above her, “Specialist Schnee, we have reached cruising altitude. It is now safe to move about the cabin.” 

 

Winter looked down once more at her scroll. She needed to send this before she lost signal. Once they got too far from Atlas, they'd lose connection with the CCT system. She gave one final look out the side window, her eyes unconsciously straying to the outskirts of the city, where she could still see the Schnee estate. It pained her to see her sister in such a state, and whatever hate still simmered inside of Winter for her father, Jacques, only grew. It was his fault Weiss was the way she was. Winter was not blind to what was happening inside of her younger sibling’s mind. The Specialist was once under that man’s thumb as well, only she had found refuge under the steel banner of the Atlas Marine Corps, and later the Specialist Program.

 

Weiss...never found such a refuge. She came close once, but Jacques had forced that dream, and any hope of Weiss living her own life, to die along with their mother. Winter was far from stupid, and she saw  _ why _ Weiss worked the way she did. It was all she had ever known, and Winter knew from her video chats with Weiss in the past years, though few and far between, that hard, time-consuming work was often her only real escape from their father. Even now, that man still hurt her sister.

 

Weiss Schnee was one of the few things Winter truly cared about in this world, and she would be damned if she let Jacques continue to damage Weiss. She longed to go in, and make a direct change to Weiss’s life herself, but for all the pain and damage their father had caused for them, he succeeded in one thing. Weiss was a Schnee, and she was as strong and stubborn as a tank. Winter absolutely had ulterior motives for pushing Weiss to hire her two personal employees, or one, as she had recently found out; she hoped that they would be able to not only protect her dear sister, but also help her to see a world beyond the shadow of her commercial empire.

 

She knew Weiss hated it, too, but that was a necessary evil. She had hoped to stay and oversee the assimilation of Weiss’s new Assistant/Bodyguard into her life, but her country had called on her. She had no choice but to answer, as she always did. While waiting for her airship to prepare for departure, Winter had typed out this email to take her place in telling Weiss how her Guard-Assistant needed to act both inside and outside the estate. It was nothing more than a few guidelines, so she hoped Weiss would listen to them. 

 

With a sigh, Winter hit the “send” button, and shut off her scroll. It would be a long flight to south Anima, just north of Menagerie. In a way, though, she was looking forward to it. There had been confirmed reports of a significant White Fang presence in the area, and Atlas Military Intelligence suspected they were planning on mobilizing soon. These were people, and she knew that, but they were the people who had hurt her family, who were now a major threat to not only her sister, but the people of Remnant as a whole.

 

She allowed herself a small smile. Winter did not consider herself a malicious person, but when times like this came, she was always eager to clean the world up a bit. These were evil people, and as much as she longed for peace in this world and love amongst all people, Winter Schnee realized more than most other people that there were some in life who just needed to die, for the safety of the rest. She cast her gaze to her Saber, resting in its sheath and secured to a shelf above the small cot in the cabin of her ship. Her smile widened very slightly, and she closed her eyes, allowing all the all the struggles of her family to slip past her, and she felt one of her rare moments of happiness. She let go, and allowed Weiss to deal with her own problems for a while. Winter had work to do now. Atlas was getting boring anyway.

 

It had been too long since her Saber tasted those bastards’ blood anyhow.

 

**\----------**

 

The almost inaudible hum of the heating unit in the Security Wing lobby was the only noise Weiss could hear as she waited. She was sat behind the receptions desk, waiting for Ms. Rose, who was due any second. She had been here for several minutes now, having nothing better to do since Winter more or less forced her to take a week of vacation off to hire her security guard and to allow Ruby to settle in. Idly, Weiss ran her hand through the off-center ponytail she still wore, a remnant from her teenage years that she had become quite fond of for a multitude of reasons. 

 

Her scroll buzzed in the pocket of her white dress pants. Pulling it out, she saw it was a notification from the gate guard, an Atlesian Knight that had been specifically designed to monitor the front gate of the manor, that Ruby Rose had arrived on the grounds, and was currently driving towards the security wing.  _ ‘Not a second too early,’ _ Weiss thought to herself. Still though, a frown found her face, and, scroll still in hand, the CEO thumbed over to her email application. It was already opened to a message she had received in the early hours of the morning, several hours before. She had already read it several times, but still her eyes skimmed over the now familiar words.

 

_ Dear Weiss, _

 

_ I know you do not appreciate my meddling in your life. I hope you understand why I pushed you to do this, and know that I understand your hesitance to allow someone into your life. I know more than anyone else just how valuable freedom is, and I know you may feel like this is restricting yours, but please, Weiss, give this an honest try. Trust me when I say that having someone to ease your workload and make sure you are not consumed by your work as you have been in the past, and to have someone who is dedicated to ensuring your safety as a high-profile person is an absolute necessity for you.  _

 

_ I had hoped to be there for you the following week, to oversee the move-in and help to establish Ms. Rose’s position with you and the company, but as you already know, I was called to aid the Kingdom of Atlas. You know how much my duty means to me, just as I know how much your freedom means to you, and when Atlas calls, it is my duty to answer. Even so, I wish I could be with you, to help you ease into the changes I have convinced you to make, and to ensure you do not try and minimize Ms. Rose’s presence in your life, though you have already done this somewhat by hiring her for both positions. Because I can not be here personally, I would like for you to look over the following list of rules I would like for you to instate and hold yourself to, as well as your new Guard, so that she may do her job effectively: _

 

_ Ms. Rose is to be allowed access to all Schnee Facilities, at your discretion. _

_ Ms. Rose is to sleep in a room no more than 4 doors from your bedroom. _

_ Ms. Rose is to be allowed no more than a week of vacation per year. _

_ Ms. Rose must be armed with a minimum of thirty rounds of ammunition at all times outside of the Estate. _

_ Ms. Rose must accompany you everywhere off of estate grounds. _

_ Ms. Rose is not to consume excessive alcoholic beverages at any point for any reason. _

 

_ This is what I would ask of you Weiss. I know you see this as unpleasant, but I do believe that you will benefit from this. Everything else in regards to the restrictions you place on your bodyguard/personal assistant is up to you. I hope to see you again soon, Weiss. If you ever need to talk, I am always here. _

 

_ With love, _

_ Winter _

 

Weiss sighed. Even now, she couldn’t believe what was happening. Why she agreed to this, she didn’t know, but here she was. The businesswoman ran her hand through her ponytail once again. She would trust Winter here, as she had never led Weiss astray before. Weiss knew Winter was just looking out for her. Even so, this was hard. She was pulled from her thoughts, though, as the door to the Security Wing lobby opened, and in walked Ruby Rose. Habitually, Weiss smoothed out the pale blue dress shirt and white bolero jacket she wore, and stood up. She shook the ex-huntress’s hand, the vivid red trim of the inside of her jacket showing just slightly as the loose sleeves sagged below her wrist.

 

The huntress before her was dressed much less formally than the day of her interview, this time wearing a black leather jacket, a small patch on her right arm bearing a symbol she recognized as Beacon’ emblem. The jacket was unzipped, showing the simple solid red T-shirt beneath. On the left breast of the jacket was the word “Huntress”, with a symbol beneath that resembled a rose of some sort. Weiss thought the jacket looked familiar somehow, but she couldn’t put her finger on it. Ruby also wore a pair of black jeans, black combat boots with red laces, and had a visible holster on her right hip, the red-and-black handle of  _ Rosebud _ visible.

 

“Hello, Ms. Rose,” Weiss began, “Have a seat,” she motioned to the chair on Ruby’s side of the desk.

 

They both sat down, and the Huntress said, “Ruby is fine, you don’t need to call me ‘Ms. Rose’ all the time if you don't want to.” She gave a small smile to her new employer.

 

Weiss frowned for a moment, tossing the idea around in her head for a moment before responding, “Actually, I’d prefer to maintain a level of professionalism for now, so I think keeping up the formalities is necessary.” The ex-huntress’s smile faded a bit, as small as it already was. Awkwardly, the huntress brushed her hand through her shoulder-length hair. “Now, Ms. Rose, we have already discussed the totalness of this job before, so I won’t bother covering that again. This final meeting is more for legal reasons and resolving some final details. Shall we begin?”

 

Thankful for the change in topic, Ruby easily said, “Sounds good to me. Let’s hear it. ” She leaned her arms on the wooden receptionist’s desk between herself and Weiss, and her smile grew back to the small but pleasant size it was before.

 

Clearing her throat, the CEO said, “Yes, well, I have a...list...of regulations for you. If you disagree with any of them, we will need to work out a middle ground.” When Ruby didn’t object, she continued, “So, first of all, you will be living here, at the estate, from now on. I will, of course, pay for your moving costs.” Seeing the redhead was about to object, Weiss continued, “As I’m sure you know, I have little else to spend my wealth on, so it really is a nonissue.”

 

Somewhat placated, Ruby said, “Well, alright, if you insist. What else?”

 

Nodding, the CEO continued, “You will be required to accompany me at all times, outside of the estate.” The words were bitter in the white-haired woman’s mouth, but if it showed on her face, Ruby didn’t seem to notice.

 

The huntress shrugged and said, “I kind of assumed that one, so it’s no problem.

 

Continuing on, “You will be required to be armed at all times off the estate, carrying at minimum thirty rounds of ammunition with you.”

 

Tapping the holster on her hip, Ruby said, “I usually am anyway so okay.”

 

_ ‘She always carries a gun?’ _ Weiss wondered. It was an odd thought, but made sense, given the redhead’s past, and future, careers. “You will, at my discretion, be granted access to all Schnee Dust Company property, after a time.” Seeing Ruby’s only response was a nod, Weiss continued, “You will receive one week vacation per year. Is this agreeable?”

 

“Yes,” Ruby replied, a polite smile on her face, “That sounds just fine.” The ex-huntress rolled her left shoulder, and then asked, “Anything else, Ms. Schnee?”

 

Weiss checked the list Winter had sent her, and said, “The last item of discussion is fairly simple. You will not be permitted to drink any alcoholic beverage in excess while on duty.”

 

A light chuckle came from the wounded woman, “Well it’s a good thing I kicked that habit a while ago then.”

 

Weiss found that somewhat concerning. She stared at Ruby cautiously for a moment, before saying simply, “Quite.”

 

They fell silent, and Ruby began to feel awkward about the cold way Weiss was staring at her. After a moment, the CEO spoke up, “Right, well, all we have left here is for you to sign off on a few contracts and waivers.” She pushed a small stack of stapled paper towards the ex-huntress, who began to read through it. “There is nothing in there we haven’t already discussed or you don’t already know.”

 

Ruby grabbed a pen from the desk, and began signing and initialling pages. After a minute or so of that, she clicked the pen closed, and said, “Done. What now?” Her silver eyes met Weiss’s blue, and, not for the first time, Ruby wondered about that scar. She kept her thoughts to herself though.

 

Weiss took the papers, and tucked them under her arm. She stood, and Ruby did the same. Once more, Weiss shook Ruby’s hand, and said, “It is official, then. Welcome to the Schnee Dust Company, Ms. Rose. Would you like see where you will be staying?”

 

The newly-minted bodyguard ‘s smile grew from polite to a reserved kind of giddiness, and she said, “That sounds wonderful, let’s go.” Weiss walked around the desk, contract under her arm, and Ruby followed behind her. 

 

Weiss pushed open the door and they stepped out into the Atlesian weather. The two women were greeted by a chilly gust of wind, and Ruby audibly shivered. “Wow, I don’t think I will ever get used to the cold here.” Weiss gave her a skeptical look over her shoulder, so the bodyguard continued, “I mean, I’ve ran missions up north in the past, but it's just...odd, having it be this cold on a regular basis.”

 

They continued along the paved driveway towards the Manor proper, and Weiss raised a single eyebrow, saying simply, “It’s only Autumn. It’s not even that cold today. ” Weiss rather liked the cold, and it irked her a bit that her new employee was complaining about it before it was even unpleasant, but she understood. Ruby was from Vale, after all. She let the annoyance roll off her back easily, thankful for the maturity she had gained in past years. Ruby was silent now, and, as they came to the grand oakwood doors that were the entrance to the Schnee family home, Weiss thought to herself,  _ ‘Goodness knows how much rougher our first meeting would have gone if I was still a teenager.’ _

 

Reminiscence of her more “prissy” years aside, Weiss stepped up the few marble steps to the entrance to the manor. She took a deep breath, this was always her least favourite part of coming home.

 

She pushed the grand doors open, and the two women stepped into massive entrance hall. The vaulted ceiling was at least twenty feet high, and the whole room was decorated in a blinding array of whites, grays, and blues. The walls were polished marble with light blue accents, and were decorated with various paintings of everything from the snowcapped mountains of Mantle, to portraits of the Schnee family. The hall was silent, and her heels clacked on the tile floor. The echoing in the silence grated on her ears and set her on edge as it always did. Her frown only deepened at the quiet gasp behind her. Weiss didn’t know if she was happy or frustrated Ruby’s combat boots were silent on the tile.

 

           Weiss looked back at the redhead, who was gazing around at the high vaulted ceiling and the priceless paintings on the walls with a sense of awe.

 

The white-haired CEO barely suppressed a sigh, before saying simply, “It will get old fast, trust me.”

 

Sensing her employer’s displeasure, Ruby shook her head and pushed her amazement from her mind. She did her best to act just a little professional, even though she technically hadn’t even started working yet. Silently, they made their way to the twin staircases at the end of the hall, but something else caught Ruby's attention. The staircases descended from the second floor as a single, wide staircase, and split halfway down, forming two, narrower staircases. The two formed what looked similar to the inverted bottom half of a heart, but it was what lie between them that caught her eye. 

 

In the gap that was formed by the splitting of the stairs was a podium of sorts, it was incredibly wide, and atop it knelt a suit of armor, like a gargantuan knight. It looked as if it was a grand statue made of steel, and Ruby though it would be about twelve feet tall if it could stand straight, but that was not what really interested her. Instead, her eyes were drawn to the plethora of gashes along the plate armor. Slashes, cuts, and dents ran along the surface of the metal, some deep, and some barely scuffs on the armor. The knight looked like it had just seen battle yesterday. A battle it had won, evidently. 

 

“Don’t ask.” Weiss’s voice pulled Ruby from her thoughts. Weiss was already partway up the stairs, and had stopped to look back at Ruby. The redhead hadn’t even realized she stopped. There was the hint of a threat in the CEO's voice, so Ruby suppressed her curiosity. A bit put off by the cold front she was receiving from her employer, the redhead just nodded and followed along.

 

They went up the right-hand staircase, and turned into a hallway. It was a similar design as the main hall, only much smaller, and with a pale blue rug on the floor. Their footsteps were muffled on it, which Weiss appreciated. There were several uniform white doors on the right side of the hall, and, only two on the left.  Set of brown wooden double doors that Ruby recognized as the study from her last visit for her interview, and an Ornate pale blue one a few feet down from that. It had an intricate carving of the Schnee Family crest shown prominently in white, and a crystal doorknob. The door looked like it cost more than Ruby’s current house. 

 

Weiss motioned towards the two sets of doors, saying “You remember the study, yes?” At the ex-huntress’s nod, Weiss moved on to the ornate door, “This is the master bedroom of the house, reserved for the head of the Schnee family and CEO of the company.

 

Ruby gave an understanding, “ah”, before asking, “So that’s where you sleep, then?”

 

Weiss looked at Ruby blankly for a moment, her expression unreadable, before sighing, and saying, “No, no it isn’t.” She then turned to look at the other doors on the other side of the hall, explaining, “These are the bedrooms that are traditionally reserved for the family of whoever is the head, but, as you can see,” she motioned at the empty hallway and silent household, “there is no family to be found here, so this is where you and I will be sleeping. I prefer my old bedroom.”

 

“Oh”

 

Weiss walked on down the hall, a weight pressing down on her shoulders that she had never gotten used to, despite its near constant presence in her home. Passing by a few doors, the two women stopped at one, looking like all the rest, and Weiss said, “ _ This _ is my room.” She then pointed a threatening finger at Ruby, “You are not to enter my bedroom for any reason, are we clear?”

 

Seeing a pattern in Weiss’s behavior, the ex-huntress decided to not give Weiss any more reason to distrust her. She raised her hands in a faux surrender, and said, “Yes ma’am.”

 

Satisfied at the answer, Weiss moved down another door, and said, “This is your bedroom,” before opening the door and walking in, with Ruby right behind her. “You will be allowed to bring any personal effects you wish into here.” The room as it was was well furnished: a simple king-sized blue bed against one wall with a pair of nightstands flanking it, a vanity across the room from the bed, a recliner by the large window on the far wall, and a medium sized oakwood desk, right beneath that same window. There was two doors that Ruby assumed led to a bathroom and a closet. 

 

She took a moment to look around the room, pacing a bit and examining the furniture until something caught her eye. Sitting on the bed was a suit bag. She walked over to it, and lifted it up in front of her. It was a plain black-and-white two-piece suit. The CEO spoke up again then, and said, “This room is yours to customize. If there is something you’d want to add that would cost money, once more, just tell me. I have plenty to go around.” Weiss moved to stand next to Ruby, who was observing the suit in front of her with an odd intensity. Confused and a tad curious, Weiss said, “You will be moving in tomorrow, so if there is anything you want me to change, tell me now. I have little else planned for today, as my sister insisted I take the week off, so I do not mind.”

 

Ruby was silent for a second, before pointing a single arm at the desk, eyes never leaving the suit, and said, “If I overstep my bounds, just say so, okay?” at her boss’s nod, she began, “If you would, replace the desk with a workbench for my guns,” she then pointed to the rightmost nightstand, “I sleep on the left side of the bed, so take out that nightstand and replace it with a gun safe, big enough for some rifles and a few ammo cases,” she then stopped pointing and, tapping her chin thoughtfully, said, “A holoscreen would be nice, too.”

 

Nodding, Weiss said, “Will that be all? If so, I will get a few AKs working on that right away.” She was looking forward to the work ahead of her. A part of her loathed being told what to do, but she was used to it. She had done very little to her house in the months she'd owned it, so this would hopefully keep her occupied. Keep her mind off the silence.

 

“One more thing,” Ruby said, eyes finally coming off of the suit she was holding, and looking at her new boss. They stood at equal heights, though Weiss was wearing heels so technically she was shorter, and their eyes met easily. Reaching her free hand around and backhand-tapping the plastic covering the suit right over the white button-up beneath the jacket, the Bodyguard and Personal Assistant to Weiss Schnee said, a sparkle in her gunmetal grey eyes and a small grin spreading across her features, said, “Can I get this in red?"


	6. 6: Cold, Quiet, and Generally Unpleasant

  Ruby sat at the workbench in her room, fiddling with a small object. Yesterday, she had signed her contract and had been formally employed by the Schnee Dust Company. Ruby, with the help of several of her new boss’s Atlesian Knights, had spent most of the day ferrying things from her small home on the outskirts of the city of Atlas to the Schnee Manor and setting up shop in her new bedroom. 

 

  Now, it was getting late. The sky was just beginning to darken outside of the large window that dominated the far wall of the luxurious bedroom. Checking her watch, the ex-huntress saw that it was just about dinnertime. Deciding that the device she was tinkering with, which appeared to be a silver wristwatch, was complete, she opted to take it with her. She stood from her workbench, and walked over to the door to the hallway, slipping on a pair of comfortable tennis shoes on her way out. She was dressed in a comfortable pair of jeans and a loose fitting T-shirt, as well as her old jacket she had received upon graduating Beacon. The black leather hung comfortably on her shoulders, and she could feel the Beacon Emblem on her right bicep, and her own symbol above her left breast.

 

  It seems she had timed her exit perfectly, as just a few seconds after Ruby left her room, her employer left hers. Ruby’s eyebrows raised at the sight before her. Weiss Schnee was dressed in a formal looking outfit consisting of a short blue dress and a white bolero. Her long legs were accented by a pair of high heels, and her hair was done up in that odd sideways ponytail she always seemed to wear. 

 

_ ‘Dust, she looks like she’s on her way to a press conference, not dinner in her home,’  _ Ruby thought, confused. “Um, are we having guests?” she asked.

 

  Weiss gave her bodyguard a critical look. “Not that I am aware of, Miss Rose,” she said shortly, before starting off down the hall.

 

  Ruby was a bit off-put by her employer’s dismissal, but but quickly matched her stride, walking down the long blue hallways towards the dining hall. “I hope I’m not, er, underdressed or anything,” Ruby worries. She had never been particularly good at social interaction, doubly so when it came to high-classers like the woman next to her. She had hoped they could be more casual alone in the manor, but it seems her boss had other ideas. 

 

  Tone not inviting further conversation, Weiss said, “Wear what you like.”

 

_ ‘Damn thats cold,’ _ Ruby thought, feeling almost physically chilled. Deciding that pursuing further conversation wasn’t worth it, she said simply, “Whatever you say, Miss Schnee.”

 

  They walked in an uncomfortable silence for the rest of the way, with the CEO forcing herself to maintain her same perfect posture and aloof attitude, while Ruby was a bit uncomfortable, not used to this kind of atmosphere, especially when not on the job. A few times as they walked along, Ruby opened her mouth to say something, anything, to break the silence, but ended up deciding against it. 

 

  The dining hall was massive, easily bigger than Ruby’s previous home, and was dominated by a long, dark oak table populated with enough chairs to seat at least twenty people on a single side. Even so, only a pair of places were set: one at the head of the table, and one to it’s immediate right. Weiss moved and sat herself down at the head, so Ruby moved to the remaining place.

 

  Almost immediately, a man came from one of the several doors in the large room (the kitchen, if Ruby was remembering her brief tour of the mansion right), bearing a pair of bowls on a tray, along with a bottle of Cabernet and a pair of glasses. The man appeared to be older, perhaps in his mid-fifties, and expertly served the two women.

 

  The meal appeared to be some sort of beef stew, and it smelled  _ wonderful.  _ For the first time since meeting her, Ruby saw her employer give a small, honest smile to the man, and Weiss said, “Thank you, Calvin.”

 

  The cleanly shaven cook smiled as well, saying with a subtle atlesian accent, “Ah, it is no problem,” a spark of concern showed through his eyes briefly as he said, “Though, please do try and finish your meal. You need to eat, Miss Weiss.”

 

  This time, Weiss’s smile didn't reach her eyes as she said, “I appreciate your concern, that will be all.” The man nodded, knowing when he was dismissed, before he glanced at Ruby briefly, and left the table, not wanting to agitate his boss further.

 

  All this Ruby watched quietly, observing the interaction with interest. Calvin was the first real person she had seen other than Weiss in the mansion, and he seemed genuinely concerned for his boss’s health. Seeing he was leaving, she spoke up, “Excuse me, um, Calvin?”

 

  He stopped, turning around. Weiss quirked her eyebrow as the bodyguard picked up her empty wine glass. “Could I have something non-alcoholic? I’m trying to avoid the stuff.”

 

  Smiling kindly, the man nodded once, saying, “Of course, Miss Rose,” before walking back to the kitchen. After a moment or two, the chef returned, pitcher of water in his hand, and filled Ruby's glass. She thanked him, and the room fell into silence as he left.

 

  Awkwardly, she went to her meal. Her eyebrows raised at the sheer number of cutlery before her. A small arsenal of knives, forks, and spoons surrounded her bowl.  _ ‘Why the hell would they put out knives when we’re having soup?!’  _ she wondered. At a loss, she cleared her throat, gaining the attention of her boss. Weiss halted with her spoon hovering halfway between her bowl and mouth, a single white eyebrow arched. Then Ruby motioned to her place setting and said, “I’m going to be honest here, fancy meals were a bit above my paygrade before, so, uh, what spoon am I supposed to use for this?”

 

  Weiss’s spoon went back into her bowl, silently mourning the delicious looking bite she almost had gotten to enjoy if not for the interruption from her,  _ ’Let’s say...uncultured...’ _ bodyguard. She sighed, and made like she was about to berate the poor woman, frustrated as she is, before an image flashed through her mind. It was of the previous head of her company, her own father, who was legendary for his temper and tendency to overreact. She remembered vividly the dinners they had held for larger events

Stuffy and uncomfortable. They were necessary in the business environment, but doubly as unpleasant at home, where her father insisted they adhere to the same rules and regulations. She always found dinners at home rather stifling. 

 

  A small spark of rebellion, the same spark that drove her to tie her hair up crooked, began to burn and instead of berating her new bodyguard, she simply said, “Use whatever you like, I do not care.”

 

  Ruby was, of course, not privy to the inner machinations of her boss’s mind, and only comprehended a brief pause followed by what seemed like a brush-off answer. She shrugged and said, “You’re the boss,” before scooping up a random spoon and beginning to eat the expensive meal. She almost purred in delight as the savoury stew poured across her tongue, lighting up her taste buds in that satisfying way she found only well-prepared beef could. Almost without meaning to, the redhead praised, “Wow, this stuff is amazing! I could get used to this.”

 

  Cold blue eyes slid over to the other occupant of the dining hall, studying her. “Yes, it is good,” was all she had to say before returning to her meal.

 

  Silence fell.

 

  Awkwardly, Ruby resumed eating. Over the course of dinner, she would glance over at her boss, but the frosty woman continued to ignore her, only ever speaking when spoken to, and even then in short, one-word answers that didn’t invite conversation. Eventually, Ruby gave up and focused on eating.

 

  Weiss struggled to enjoy her food, finding the presence of the younger woman distracting. She wasn’t  _ unpleasant _ per say, but not pleasant either. Some part of her found the fact that another human being was sharing a meal with her in - relative - comfort to be refreshing, but another, louder part of herself longed for the calm that came with being alone. With Ruby here, there was an odd sort of anxiety that weighed on her. Formal events, she could handle, but Ruby Rose was a different animal all together. An unknown variable. She shifted in her seat, her feet aching from being in heels the entire day, and her dress seemed to weigh on her shoulders. Usually, at this point in the day when she was back in the manor and alone but for the skeleton crew of a staff she had and the atlesian knights that served as security, she would usually dress in something more comfortable and take this time to relax and unwind from her day.

 

  Having another person here meant she had to keep up her appearance, which only added to her frustration. Still, though, she tempered that frustration. She promised Winter she would give this an honest try, and if nothing else she was a woman of her word.

 

  Ruby, likewise, was struggling. The air as they ate quietly seemed thick and formal, and she longed for her home. Not her previous house, no, but the home that she no longer could return to. Unbidden, memories floated through her mind of the home her team once had lived in. She missed easy meals between missions. She missed laughing as she and her sister cooked food. She missed the three of them sitting down in the living room with a bowl of spaghetti in each of their hands, watching some cheesy movie as they ate. 

 

  She missed Yang.

 

  She missed her team.

 

  She missed her  _ family. _

 

  She missed…

 

  Her scar ached, and she rolled her shoulder to relieve the stiffness. It didn't help. 

 

  Only when her spoon clanked against the ceramic bottom of her bowl did Ruby realise she had finished eating. She set the utensil down and shoved her emotions back deep down below the surface of her mind.

 

  Weiss, also finished, stood up and without further ado began to walk out of the dining hall. 

 

  Then, something clicked in the personal assistant’s head, and she quickly stood and caught up with her employer. “Miss Schnee!” she called out, halting the woman.

 

  She tried,  _ oh _ she tried to not be annoyed, but all the CEO wanted to do was go to her room so she could finally just relax. Only barely restraining from snapping at her new employee, she all but hissed, “What do you want?”

 

  “Here,” Ruby began, pulling the item she had been working on before dinner out of her pocket and holding it out, “I made you this.”

 

  Weiss took the silver, analog wristwatch from the redhead, looking at it curiously. The entirety of the band was made of polished silver, and the face of the watch was a light blue, highlighted by black tick marks and hands to actually tell the time. “You don’t need to give me any kind of gift, you know,” she said, unsure how to react.

 

  Ruby shook her head, a small smile working its way onto her face at the chance to talk shop, “It’s not  _ just _ a gift, though it is a nice watch, if I do say so myself. It’s also for work.”

 

  “What do you mean?”

 

  “As your bodyguard, I want you to try and wear this at all times, outside of the manor,” Ruby explained.

 

  Her rebellious side prickled at that “Why is that?” she asked suspiciously. 

 

  “In case of emergencies,” the huntress began, demonstrating what she was saying by miming the motions over the watch, “If, for any reason, you need me and I’m not with you, you can click in the dial here twice, then twist the frame of the face 360 degrees, and it will vibrate quietly. Do it now, to see.” Weiss did as her bodyguard said, and the watch rumbled silently in the CEO’s hands. Then, an urgent sounding beeping emitted from Ruby’s pocket, and the ex-huntress smiled, satisfied that her device worked. “It’s like a kind of panic button. You do that, and it activates a tracker in the watch, and alerts me that you’re in danger. Cool, huh?”

 

  Weiss was impressed. She hadn't expected the outwardly flippant woman would go the second mile like that. “You don't start work until tomorrow, you didn’t have to do this.”

 

  Ruby waved her hand dismissively, saying, “Nah, I know I’m not the picture of a professional, but I don’t do things halfway. You can thank Professor Goodwitch for that.“ Then, she grinned, “Plus, I always enjoy making things. Also, I made sure it matches your style.” She tapped the silver, just a bit proud of herself.

 

  “Well then,” the white-haired woman said, quietly impressed, “I suppose I should thank you. Is that all?”

 

  “Yeah, I think so,” Ruby responded.

 

  The Schnee nodded, saying “Goodnight,” before continuing on her way, wristwatch in hand.

 

_ ‘Well, that went about as well as expected,’ _ Ruby thought, allowing herself to smile. She made her way back to her own bedroom, watching her boss’s ponytail sway behind her, and listening to the  _ clack  _ of her heels on the tile that the house seemed to be covered in.

 

  Soon enough, Weiss walked into her bedroom, and Ruby watched the door close, mild curiosity leading her to wonder why her boss had made such a point to forbid Ruby from entering her room. Dismissing it as nothing terribly important, Ruby went to her own room, looking to clean her pistol and maybe touch up her favourite knife, before settling down for an early rest.

 

  One more day before her first day on the job would begin.

 

**0000000000**

 

  Ruby awoke, several hours later, a pair of golden irises hovering in front of her eyes. She flung herself from the bed, the sheets tangling around her feet as she stood up,  _ Rosebud _ already swiped up from her place on Ruby’s nightstand.

 

  Sweat clung to her forehead, spilling into her eyes as they frantically searched around the dark room.  _ ‘Something is  _ **_wrong_ ** _ ,’  _ she thought. The smell in the air wasn’t that of her bedroom, the carpet beneath her feet was too soft to be hers, and the air was too cold. She was in unfamiliar territory.

 

  Every muscle in her body tensed. She closed her eyes, as they were useless in the lightless environment. He ears strained, listening in the room for anything -  _ anything  _ \- that sounded like a threat. After a moment, when all she heard was the quiet thrumming of an air conditioner, the adrenaline began to leave her bloodstream, and her bowstring-tight muscles relaxed as her facilities came back to her.

 

  Her right hand, holding  _ Rosebud _ , lowered.  _ ‘Oh, right, Schnee stuff…’ _ she thought, wiping the sweat from her face with a groan. She had completely forgot that she had moved into the manor in the rush of adrenaline. It had been a while since she had a truly restful sleep, but nothing like this had happened in a long time. She clicked the safety on her pistol, and set it back down on the nightstand.

 

  After swapping out her tank top for one decidedly less sweaty and moving the covers from the floor back onto the bed, she attempted to fall back asleep. Almost an hour later, she succeeded, slipping into unconsciousness. She would not wake until morning.

 

**0000000000**

 

  This time, the bodyguard was roused by the sun spilling through the curtains on the massive window in her room. Despite having her sleep interrupted, and what sleep she got being fairly restless, Ruby shrugged her grogginess off easily enough. She had done much more difficult things than eat breakfast and familiarize herself with her new living space on much less sleep.

 

  Going through her usual daily ritual of brushing her teeth, getting dressed (opting to leave the sweatpants she slept in on), throwing on her Huntsman’s Jacket, and strapping one of her several holsters to her hip with  _ Rosebud _ secured there, she stepped into a pair of slippers and out into the hallway. She patted her hand against the textured grip of her favourite sidearm (though not her favourite  _ weapon _ ) and it brought a bit of comfort to her.  _ ‘Never leave home without it,’ _ she mimicked the tone of an infomercial in her head, almost laughing at her own dumb joke. 

 

  She walked the path she knew led to the kitchen, tapping a beat on the grip of her sidearm, entirely unaware of how bizarre it was for someone to be walking through a house - massive or not, the manor was still a house -  wearing both sweatpants and slippers, as well as a holster with a loaded weapon. She whistled along with the beat, a cheery tune, the likes of which this house had not heard in decades.  _ ‘Carry on my wayward son...there'll be peace when you are done…’  _ she thought along with her tune.

 

  After a time, she passed though the foyer, once more marvelling at the sheer scale of it. She spent a moment wondering about that giant suit of scarred armor, before the rumbling in her belly brought her mind back to more urgent matters, and she continued on her way.

 

  The manor was almost eerily quiet the whole walk through. The only sound she could hear other than her own humming and whistling was the air rushing through the vents and the muffled tapping of her feet on the carpet. She wondered how Weiss had lived in this place for so long. 

 

  When she arrived in the dining hall, she found it empty, save for the quiet noise of a faucet in the kitchen. She checked her watch, noting the time was nine AM. She continued staring at the watch, a memory taking her attention.

 

**0000000000**

 

_ Tears filled the man’s blue eyes as he gazed upon his daughter, the little girl he had watched grow into a fine woman. They were almost equal in height now, and she grinned wildly.  They were celebrating his daughters’ team’s graduation from Beacon Academy, and he had pulled her aside. Choking on his own emotions, he croaked out, “You're mother would have been so proud.” _

 

_   And she would have, and he was too, Ruby could see it in his eyes. She could see the way his eyes lingered on the ‘Huntress’ patch on her chest,where she wore her rank with pride. “I know, dad...She would have been proud of you, too.” _

 

_   At that, Taiyang chuckled, even through his tears. He sniffed and said, “I got you something.” _

 

_    He held out a small box, which the newly-minted huntress looked at curiously. Taking it, she slipped the lid off. Her eyes widening at the object. It was a digital wristwatch. It was made of a kind of black metal with red highlights around the face, and managed to be low profile while still looking like it was built like a tank. It felt heavy in her hands, and she grinned. _

 

_   “I saw this a while ago, and thought of you,” the father began, “I know you like your gear weighty, so I thought you’d appreciate this.” _

 

_   She smiled, touched, “I love it, Dad.” _

 

_   He leaned forward, cupping her cheeks in his hands, the same way he did when she was just a child, and smiled that odd sad-happy smile that only a parent could smile. He looked into her silver eyes, the same ones her mother had once upon a time, and said, “I love you, my little rosebud. You make me so proud.” He leaned in, and laid a gentle kiss on his daughter’s forehead. _

 

_   Ruby smiled, bright and happy, and rested her left hand easily against his on her cheek, and said, “I know, I love you too, Dad.” _

 

_   Before anything else could be said a third voice, this one from the living room of the main house, cried out, “Dad! Ruby! Come on already, this food smells delicious!” _

 

_   Then, another, smoother female voice rang out, “You two better hurry, Yang might not leave any wings for you.” _

 

_   Spell broken somewhat, Tai laughed, “That’s quite the team you have there, Rubes.” _

 

_   A fond smile spread across her face, “Yeah, I know. We’re gonna do great things, dad, I just know it.” _

 

**0000000000**

 

  Ruby shook her head, finding tears beginning to rise up behind her eyes. She bit back the bitter nostalgia, her weakness, and refused to let a single tear fall. It had been four years since then, and she hadn’t thought about that day in forever. She let the bittersweet memory leave her mind and moved on to the kitchen.

 

  Inside, she found an older man at a sink, scrubbing at a pan. She recognized him from dinner the previous day.  _ ‘Gah, what was his name? I remember it had something to do with underwear…’ _ at a loss, and frustrated with her horrid ability to memorize most names, she cleared her throat to catch the man’s attention.

 

  He turned from the sink, locking eyes with the huntress, confused at first, then a polite smile grew on his face. He set the pan down before addressing the new bodyguard, “Hello, Miss Rose. What may I do for you?”

 

  He was an older man, Ruby derived that from his moderately wrinkled skin and greying hair, though she wouldn’t exactly call him elderly, yet.  _ ‘Oh, Calvin! That’s what it was!’  _ “I’d just like to know where the breakfast food is. Maybe some coffee, too.”

 

  “Ah, well I could make just about anything you want me to! Any requests?” he asked, his hands folded politely in front of him. 

 

  “Just coffee and whatever We-er, miss Schnee had,” Ruby asked a little sheepishly. 

 

  He chuckled at her little vocal misstep, and said, “Omelette it is then,” before going about setting up one of the many stoves in the huge kitchen. “Have a seat, ma’am,” he said as he motioned towards a chair near the door.

 

  She sat down, and watched as the cook began to make her food. Figuring he could give her a bit of information, she asked, “So, who else works here?”

 

  He frowned at that, saying, “There used to be a small army here at the manor when the whole family was in residence. Now, I’m afraid it is just you, me, miss Schnee, and the cleaning service she has hired to come through while she is at work.”

 

  Well, that was odd. Ruby’s curiosity - which had managed to avoid withering up and dying as she got older - perked up, and she asked, “I noticed that there wasn't much staff, but can I ask why?”

 

  He sighed an odd sort of sigh, one that wasn’t really sad or nostalgic, but not happy either. “Like I said, when the whole family resided here, Jacques, Miss Weiss’s father, made a point to keep the manor immaculate. He enjoyed showing his money off, thus,” he motioned vaguely around the absurdly large kitchen, “all of this. When miss Weiss took over the estate and company, well, she wasn’t like her father in that regard. Most of the security and labor forces were replaced by the robots you see dispersed around, and everyone else who was in excess was let off.”

 

  Ruby’s brows furrowed. She didn’t even notice the hissing of egg meeting heated butter on the pan. “She just...fired them?”

 

  He clicked his tongue, “Not exactly. She went out of her way to ensure that they all received healthy pensions. Unlike her father, miss Weiss rarely spends her money on extravagant things, and had accumulated quite the wealth in the short time she had been CEO before all this happened. She made sure they would be well funded for long enough that they could secure a new job.”

 

  “Ah,” Ruby said, her sense of justice satisfied in knowing that the workers weren't just thrown to the wayside.

 

  Calvin went on, however, not withholding any details, “Like that, she let off almost the entire mansion’s staff. The few that remained would end up leaving for various reasons over time,” his voice gained a sad sort of inflection, “Now, all that is left is me, and you.”

 

  The omelette was slid onto a plate for the huntress, and that plate slid onto a tray along with a few slices of toast that Ruby hadn't noticed the man make. Calvin then moved on to begin making her coffee. The kitchen was silent for a time, before Calvin spoke up once more, his voice gentle, the kind of voice you’d expect from a grandparent of some sort, “Miss Weiss is not a simple person, Miss Rose, and seeing as how you walked into my kitchen with a gun strapped to your sweatpants, I don’t think you are either. She finds adapting to new situations and people...difficult. How do you take your coffee?”

 

 Thrown off by the sudden question, Ruby took a moment to respond, “Uh, with cream. Add a bit more sugar that you would in a normal cup.”

 

  He nodded, and continued on with his speech even as he fixed her coffee, “I know she may seem distant now, but please, I ask you, be patient with her. She truly does desire to be a good person, and you will come to know that in time.”

 

  A bit of Ruby bristled at that. She had learned long ago that there was no truly good or bad people. It was not an easy lesson, but she had learned it. Still though, she let Calvin continue.

 

  “My wife, she is not in perfect health,”  _ that _ got Ruby’s attention, “I do not know how much longer I can stay here, so you may be the one who has to stand by Miss Weiss’s side. Be kind to her, and help her. Be there for her, that is all I ask. Will you do that for me, Miss Rose?” He paused what he was doing, giving her a meaningful look.

 

  Ruby was not expecting anything like this when she woke up this morning. Still though, she could hear the concern in his voice, and was touched. She stood from her seat, and walked over to meet him. He set her coffee cup on the tray, and met her gaze with his own. The huntress then said, “Don’t worry, Calvin, I will. You can call me Ruby.”

 

  He smiled, a weight seeming to lift from his old shoulders, and said, “Thank you, Miss Ruby” his demeanor quickly changed back to cheery, and he exclaimed, “Now! Off you go, you must eat before the food grows cold!” He shoved the small tray into her hands, and shooed her into the dining room.

 

  She allowed a small grin to play over her features, happy that she had at least made one friend here. She always did have trouble with making friends,  _ especially _ when she was younger. Even if her one friend in Atlas did appear older than her own father,  _ ‘That’s one friend. Boss-lady still won’t use my first name, but oh well. Calvin said she would open up eventually, so I guess there’s still hope. Now, though, definitely not a friend.’ _

 

  She began to dig into her  _ delicious _ food, her stomach rumbling in a pleased manner as her taste buds lit up at what was definitely the best thing she had tasted since she moved to Atlas months ago, or at least a close second if last night’s meal was considered. All while she enjoyed her omelette, she occupied her mind with thoughts of friends.  _ ‘Well, if last night was anything to go by, Weiss really doesn’t like me yet. Hell, Weiss may even count as a  _ negative _ friend. Is that a thing? Negative friends? That would make my friend-coun equal zero.’  _ She thought for a few more seconds, before taking a swig from her mug and deciding,  _ ‘Nah.’ _

 

  The thoughts distracted her, kept her from thinking about the heavier, darker things that lurked in her psyche. She had found that it worked infinitely better than any kind of liquor she could find. After she had finished with her meal, she decided she would do a bit of exploring. After a few minutes wandering aimlessly around the white and blue hallways and occupying her mind with little, inconsequential thoughts, she passed by the area she remembered as the study, just a few doors down from where their bedrooms were. Out of curiosity, she knocked on the door.

 

  From inside, a voice she recognized as her new employer asked, “Yes?”

 

  Her mind flashed back to her previous conversation with the house cook, and decided that maybe getting in a little bit more time with her new housemate/employer could be a good idea. “May I come in?” she asked back.

 

  An obviously annoyed voice answered back, “You may.”

 

  Ruby pushed open the unexpectedly heavy door, and stepped into the study. Even after having visited the study a few days prior, during their first meeting, Ruby still marveled at just how different this room was from every other one in the mansion. The decor was decidedly darker than anywhere else. Most of the room was made of dark brown oak wood, from the bookshelves that lined the two side walls and were stuffed full of books, maps, and small statuettes, to the hardwood floors. The desk at the end of the long room was also dark wood, and immediately behind it on the wall sat two picture frames, both bearing exquisitely painted pictures of the Atlas coast. Oddly enough, Ruby noticed that there was an area between them on the wall that was ever so slightly lighter that the wall around it.  _ ‘Huh, looks like someone took a picture down. Wonder why.’ _ Ruby walked along the blue rug on the floor, which ran the length of the room, passing a small sitting area consisting of a couch and two lounge chairs, with a coffee table between them on her way. On that coffee table sat an old chessboard.  _ ‘Always liked chess. Maybe when Weiss opens up a bit, if she ever does, I could talk her into playing a game with me.’ _

 

  She made her way up to the desk, where her charge sat scrawling something or another on a sheet of paper. Once Ruby halted in front of the desk though, the frosty woman set down her pen and gave Ruby her attention, “Is there something you needed?”

 

  Ruby shook her head, “No real reason, I was just walking around the manor, and got curious.” She made a small show of glancing around the place. It was cozier than any other part of the house, but at the same time, held a certain chill that the rest of the manor didn’t.

 

  “Oh,” Weiss blinked, finding the idea of someone doing something without any actual purpose or motivation a bit odd, “Well, alright then.”

 

  After a beat of silence, the ex-huntress spoke up, “It’s odd how this room is so different from all the other ones.”

 

  Deciding that she may as well humor her, Weiss asked, “How so?”

 

  Ruby shrugged, “The colors, I guess. The rest of the house is mostly either white, or light blue. In here, it’s, well, not.”

 

  Weiss glanced around the study as if seeing it for the first time. She had seen this room so many times growing up (mostly for either scoldings, orders, or, rarely, a game of chess), that she had never really even noticed it. “I see what you mean,” she said. After a moment, she elaborated, “My grandfather built the house initially, but my father expanded it greatly when he became CEO. This was one of the rooms he had built. ”

 

  Ruby chuckled at that, saying, “I guess some change in color was a good idea. Looking at that much white for that long is bound to give anyone a headache. Then again, correct me if I’m wrong, but didn’t Jacques, like, dye his hair white?”

 

  “I think he did, actually,” Weiss said. Trying to be polite was beginning to grate on her nerves, however, and she was busy. Still, though, she pushed on, saying simply, “Sadly, though, the atmosphere doesn’t do very much when the headaches come from paperwork.”

 

  “Ha! Yeah, I know how that feels. After-action reports were...ah, were very frustrating to deal with,” her cheeks heated a bit after almost cursing in front of someone who was technically her superior. 

 

  “Hm, I’m sure they were,” Weiss said simply, trying to stay somewhat nice while still dissuading any further conversation.

 

  Not having a response to that, Ruby felt the conversation die off, and began to feel awkward. “Well, nice speaking to you, Miss Schnee, I’ll leave you to whatever you were doing.”

 

  “Thank you, that would be nice,” Weiss said, trying to keep her voice as polite as possible.

 

  Ruby began to leave, walking back towards the door, when something caught her attention. On the coffee table was that same chessboard that she had noticed earlier, but her eyes locked on a single piece. A white knight stood discarded on the side of the board, lying helplessly on its side. 

 

_   ‘How about a cute little pony!’ _

 

  The memory rang out, unbidden, and in a voice entirely not hers. Her feet ground to a halt there, and her vision tunneled onto that one single chess piece. A wave of emotion hit her all at once, the likes of which she hadn’t felt in months. The unwanted memory dug deep, and drug up everything from her previous life, the life she lost, like it was a fresh wound. 

 

  Her scar ached.

 

  “Is there something else?” Weiss asked, not glancing up from her paperwork.

 

  Ruby felt like she had been hit in the chest by and ursa, and her throat felt like she had been hung. “No, nothing,” she said, forcing her voice level, before rushing out of the room without another word.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Buenos dias, cockbites, guess who’s back.
> 
> Jokes aside, I have resurrected this story from the limbo that is ‘hiatus’, and have gotten back into my writing groove. Hopefully, the updates will come out in a vaguely regular schedule, but no promises. I have a very busy life (one which, very pointedly, does not know about my writing hobby), so finding time to write is difficult.
> 
> Enough excuses, though! I have rediscovered my muse for this story, and it is back! I couldn’t leave it for too long, after all. I have WAY too much planned for this story to hang it out to dry, and let me tell you, it will be full of homosexual undertones! And gunfire, too. And don’t forget the plot!
> 
> Seriously though, I am back, and the next chapter will be out as soon as humanly possible.
> 
> Until then, this is the Order, signing off.
> 
> -Order


	7. 7: One Last Day

    Ruby gritted her teeth, and marched down the hallway outside of Weiss’s study. Unconsciously, she walked the path back to her bedroom, but inside her mind she battled with a torrent of emotions running through her. Memories of years passed rushed through her mind, memories of times that had passed long ago. She did her best to muddy the images, trying her best not to fall into that dark pit she did whenever this happened.

 

  It was rare that she had attacks like these in recent weeks, but when they came they almost suffocated the ex-huntress. She made her way into her bedroom and collapsed backwards onto her bed. She clasped her hands over her face, groaning aloud. Her heart hammered in her chest as images of her former life flitted underneath her eyelids. She felt that familiar dread rotting its way through her, and her hands ached for the comforting weight of a full bottle.

 

  Knowing where that line of thinking went, Ruby went to her tried and true method of fighting off these attacks. She pulled herself out of bed.  _ ‘I will  _ not _ fall back down that hole again.’ _ She drug herself over to her workbench, ignoring the way her heart clenched in her chest at every memory she used to smile at. She reached across the table, and picked up her old combat knife. Ruby drew the knife from its sheath and looked at it for a moment. After a second, she grabbed another item, a small red case, from the desk.

 

  She cracked it open, revealing a series of whetstones inside. Plucking a fine grained stone from the case and pouring a small amount of honing oil over it, Ruby got to work. She ran the stone over the blade, honing the already razor-sharp knife even further. She allowed the small, menial task to occupy her mind, and slowly, ever so slowly, the dread in her heart began to fade away.

 

  Working with her hands, she had discovered, had an odd way of grounding her in the moment, of reminding her that she couldn’t change the past, no matter how hard she wanted to, and that she needed to focus on the future. She kept on with her task for several minutes, until her heart began to settle, and the rush of emotions began to fade back into normalcy. When the only sound filling her mind was the soft rasp of manufactured stone over metal, and her heart beat at a slow, steady pace, Ruby drew the blade and stone apart. Testing its sharpness with her thumb, almost cutting herself in the process, Ruby grinned, satisfied. She cleaned the blade and stone of the microscopic flecks of steel that had built up and slid the military-style blade back into its sheath. 

 

  She let out a deep breath, and with it went the last of her pain.  _ ‘I survived, that’s all that matters, and now I’m here. Still kicking,’ _ she thought calmly. Now idle, she grew a bit bored. An idea came to her, then, and she stood. Leaving the room, she briskly made her way back to Weiss’s study. She knocked on the door once more.

 

  “...Yes?” came the partially annoyed voice from inside.

 

  Wincing slightly, Ruby stuck her head inside the study, seeing her boss glance at her with a look that very clearly showed how displeased she was to be interrupted  _ again _ , and asked, “Hey, is it alright if I use the shooting range or gym over in the Security Wing?”

 

  Weiss was silent for a moment, not expecting that. After a moment, though, she said, “You are free to use any facilities in the security wing that you wish, unless I tell you not to,” then, she squinted, glaring lightly at her new assistant, “However, do not break anything, Miss Rose.”

 

  Ruby laughed quietly, and said simply, “Understood, thank you,” before leaving the room. She wanted to beat off the rust that had built up over her months of ‘vacation’ since the incident, and get her marksmanship back up to where it was in her heyday before she went on the job tomorrow.

 

_ ‘Also, I  _ really _ want to shoot something right about now. I might even hit the gym too.’ _

 

**0000000000**

 

  As the door to her study closed once more, Weiss sighed deeply. That woman was oddly...tiring, in a way she couldn’t quite place. It was strange. A part of her recoiled away from the woman every time she was near, not appreciating her presence in the one place Weiss could feel any level of relaxation, the manor (though sometimes it was fairly difficult to relax in a place that held so many unpleasant memories). Still, though, whenever she was there, that  _ feeling _ she had been struggling with most of her life seemed to fade. That spike of cold deep beneath her skin she always felt whenever the silence around her was too much and she didn’t have anything to occupy her mind just simply went away whenever her new employee was around.

 

  It didn’t disappear, per say, but more of faded to the back of her mind.  _ ‘How....strange,’  _ she thought, staring at the closed door from across the long room. She added it to the list of things that were odd about that woman. 

 

  Weiss sat in silence for a moment, before the cold began to creep back into her veins, and she turned back to her work. She felt a small amount of guilt as she put pen to paper. She  _ did _ promise Winter that she would spend these few days getting acquainted with her new bodyguard/assistant and relaxing, but here she was working on profit statistics.  _ ‘I already hired a new person into my life for her, this is fair,’ _ the CEO thought with just a touch of bitterness. She shook her head, and got back to work, her mind being drawn away from the spiking chill in her heart.

 

**0000000000**

 

A Few Hours Later

 

_ BANG! _

 

    The .45 caliber handgun bucked in Ruby’s right hand for the final time that day, and she sighed contentedly. The scent of gunsmoke suffused her, and she breathed it deeply. She had not been shooting  _ nearly _ enough in these past few months. She simply had no reason to. Most days since the incident were spent in her own house (it never really felt like a  _ home _ ), and only went to the local range rarely.

 

    That said, she had thankfully retained most of her skills from when she was a huntress, with the exception of her acrobatic fighting style and aura-supplemented strength.  It felt good to feel  _ Rosebud’s _ recoil again. She was Ruby's favourite sidearm, after all. She clicked the safety on the pistol, and swapped the depleted clip for a full one, keeping the chamber clear, and holstered it.

 

    She stretched upwards, wondering what to do next. She glanced at her watch, seeing that she still had about two hours until dinner. Deciding she may as well work out a bit, she moved into the gym, the same place she had run an obstacle course just a few days prior.. Luckily, she had the forethought to grab a pair of gym shorts from her room before coming here. She changed quickly, leaving her clothes and sidearm on a bench, she walked forward. She stood there, standing in the silent gymnasium. There was enough equipment, weights bags, treadmills, ellipticals, and even a quarter mile track around the perimeter, to train a small army, but it was completely silent.

 

    It seemed wrong, somehow. Ignoring it, Ruby stepped out onto the track, and took off. She would only get a few steps before the echoing sound of her footsteps became too much. The building was the size of an aircraft hangar, and the silence weighed on Ruby. Looking for a solution, the ex-huntress glanced around the room.  _ ‘This is pretty damn depressing actually,’ _ she thought. 

 

    Her eyes caught on the catwalks that crisscrossed the area above her head. She thought back to the obstacle course she had ran before, and vaguely remembered Weiss having used an intercom. An idea occured to her, and a sly grin came across the woman’s face. She jogged to the metal staircase that led up to the catwalks, plucking her scroll from the bench on her way. Once she found the intercom, she fiddled with the panel, eventually hooking up her scroll to the system.

 

    She opened up a music app on the scroll, flipping through a few pages, before stumbling onto an interesting looking playlist. It was of popular songs from several years beforehand.  _ ‘I was fifteen then. Sure, let's go with that.’ _

 

    After a few seconds, the sounds of some pop song or another filled the gym, playing over the intercom system. She smiled, saying to herself, “That’s better.”

 

    Once she had gotten back to the ground, Ruby got to work.

 

**0000000000**

 

    Weiss stretched upwards at her desk, huffing out a small bit of air. She had finished all of the paperwork she had missed over her week of ‘vacation’, and was finally prepared for work tomorrow. She felt satisfied with what she had accomplished, but at the same time she was disappointed that she no longer had anything to do. She glanced at her new watch, seeing that there was still an hour before dinner would be served.

 

    She kept looking at her watch, thinking. It really was a wonderfully made piece of technology. She was impressed that Ruby had the forethought to craft the tracking device. That said, some part of her hated the device and the idea that Ruby could track her. She stamped that down, though, reasoning,  _ ‘It’s necessary for her job, and it was...kind of her to give me the power to deactivate and activate it.’ _

 

    She shook her head, not wanting to remain idle for long.  _ ‘I should probably fetch Ms. Rose from the security wing.’ _ Deciding that was the best course of action, Weiss began walking. After leaving the main building and walking the short path to the building that held the Security Wing, Weiss entered. 

 

    Immediately, she was greeted by the pulsing music coming from deeper inside the building. Something about it tickled the back of her mind.  _ ‘Why does that sound so...familiar...?’ _ The CEO followed the sound of the music, and soon enough she was able to discern the lyrics.

 

_ Mirror, Mirror, what’s behind you? _

 

_     Save me from the things I see! _

 

_     ‘Oh.’ _

 

    She immediately recognised the tune of her own, if younger, voice. Her brow scrunched up in confusion, and she followed the music further. After walking through a few hallways, she came to the gym. The music was blaring over the intercom, and filled the room with the music that was at just shy of an uncomfortable volume. Curious, she kept her steps light, and closed the door behind her silently. 

 

    Weiss had no trouble finding Ruby in the large room, as she was the only other occupant. Her bodyguard had her eyes closed, obviously focusing on her exercise, and hung upside down on a pullup bar by her knees. Her hands were crossed behind her head, and she was doing a sit-up like motion, pulling herself upwards, before letting herself slowly fall back down.

 

    Due to the obvious laws of gravity affecting the young woman, the exercise caused her shirt to ride up. Weiss found her eyes inexplicably drawn to the other woman’s stomach. Her muscles were well defined from years of work as a huntress, and were flexing powerfully beneath her skin. It took some effort for the CEO to drag her eyes from tracing one of the many droplets of sweat that were rolling down the former warrior’s abs, and just a tinge of warmth formed in her chest.  _ ‘What the hell…?’ _ she thought, confused.

 

    Deciding that dealing with whatever this was could wait until later, Weiss pulled her thoughts back to what she had come here to do. She ignored the fact that her mouth very suddenly felt remarkably dry, and made her way to her assistant.

 

    She did her best to ignore how the sweat glistened on the other woman’s skin.

 

    “...That’s an interesting song you’re listening to,” Weiss said.

 

    She wasn’t sure what she was expecting from the obviously straining woman to do upon being interrupted, but to suddenly jerk to a stop before ungracefully falling off of the pull up bar (with the ever so eloquent cry of “Shit!” accompanying her) and into a heap on the floor was certainly not it. The redhead rubbed the back of her head, thankful that her measly aura was able to keep her from getting a concussion, and said, looking up at her boss from her position on the floor, “ OH, uh, Ms. Schnee, you scared me!”

 

    The Schnee allowed a small quirk to show on her lips, saying “Well, let’s hope you aren’t so easily distracted on the job.”

 

    Not fully acquainted with the businesswoman's mannerisms, Ruby was only half sure the statement was in jest. She rose up, her back hurting from where her aura had failed to cushion her efficiently, and said, “It won’t be a problem, don’t worry. I know how to ‘get down to business’,” she used air quotes, “and sorry about the music, it was kind of unnerving with how quiet it was in here.”

 

    Weiss waved her hand, dismissing Ruby’s concerns. It helped that seeing the woman react so spectacularly to being interrupted was somewhat amusing. “It is fine, I just came to tell you that dinner will start in an hour, and you may want to freshen up a bit before.”

 

    Ruby nodded, a smile growing over her face, “Yeah, with the way I probably smell right now, I could probably kill my sister’s appetite, and that woman could eat an Ursa on a  _ good _ day.”

 

    Weiss had trained for years in hiding her emotions, in wearing a mask solid enough so that whatever she was thinking was well and truly hidden, and if not for that training, she might have chuckled. As it were, though, Weiss nodded, not quite comfortable in letting her new employee see that much of her, and said, “Yes, my point exactly. Now, come along.”

 

    The white-haired woman turned and began to walk away, her misaligned ponytail swishing across the Schnee sigil on her back. Ruby gave a cheeky two-fingered salute, saying, “Yes ma’am,” before scooping her things up from the bench and quickly pulling her scroll from the intercom, before jogging lightly to catch up with her boss. 

 

    The bodyguard felt  _ great _ at the moment. Her body felt worked in a way it hadn't in awhile, and she felt pleasantly sore from her workout. Plus, she had seemingly made some small progress with getting on her new boss’s good side.

 

    The two walked out into the chilly Atlesian air, and Ruby shivered as it met her sweat-slicked skin. Quickly, the two woman walked the path back to the main building, and began on the way to the bedrooms once inside. They only made it as far as the top of the stairs in the main hall before being intercepted by an out of breath and visibly distressed Calvin.

 

    “Ms. Schnee! It’s urgent!” he said, panting, not used to as much running as he had just done.

 

    Weiss was understandably startled. She raise her hands in a placating gesture, saying, “Calvin, calm down, explain what's happening.”

 

     “It’s my wife,” he began, “She’s in the hospital. I must go, I’m sorry, but I must!”

 

    Weiss nodded, keeping her voice soft, polite, “It’s fine, Calvin, you may go.”

 

    He smiled a strained smile, and thanked her profusely, before apologising, “I haven’t even made dinner yet, I am so sorry.” He turned to Ruby then, opening his mouth as if he was about to say something, but couldn’t find the words.

 

    Ruby remembered their conversation that morning, and her heart went out to the old man. She stepped forward and placed her hand on his shoulder before saying, “We’ll be fine. Go see about your wife, we’ll hold down the fort.” She tried for a kind smile.

 

    He seemed to accept that answer, and ran his hand through his greying hair stressfully, “Yes, yes, thank you Miss Ruby, I must go.” Then, he rushed away, understandably eager to meet his spouse.

 

    Ruby didn’t know what hospital Calvin’s wife was going at, but she hoped he would get there quickly.

 

    Once the large exit door closed behind the cook, Weiss let out a deep sigh. Usually, she would stamp down on these impulses so that those around her couldn’t guess her thoughts, but this was different. “Isolda always was a nice woman, I hope she’ll be alright.”

 

    “Yeah,” the bodyguard responded.  _ ‘There’s enough death in this world as is, and Calvin seems like a good person,’ _ she thought. She had seen a lot in her short career as a huntress, but things like this always got her. “What are you thinking?” she asked the stoic woman.

 

    The white haired woman was silent for a moment, before she shook her head and responded, “I have no idea. I’m worried for them, of course, but I’ve never been overly social with Calvin. I don’t know very much about his wife’s condition, so for all I know she could be on her deathbed.”

 

    Ruby grunted at that, not liking the idea but unable to counter it, “Yeah. Still, though, I wish there was something I could do to help. I’ve only talked to him like twice, but still...” 

 

    Weiss nodded to that, eyes never leaving the door the chef had left from. “I’ve already seen that she has the best doctors, and he knows they don’t need to worry about money. I’ve done all I can, and so have you. At this point, all we can do for them is hope.”

 

    The huntress blinked, shocked by her boss’s statement. Even though Calvin told her earlier that she had helped out her former workers, this kind of generosity was unexpected. Ruby came into this job expecting certain qualities of her boss, the kind she had come to associate with the rich over the course of her life, and of the Schnees even more so. This kind of charity was unprecedented. At least, without a massive media event highlighting their ‘generosity’ to the public, it was unprecedented. She thought about it, but couldn’t come up with any angle that the Schnee could be playing here other than simple human kindness. She concluded it must be genuine, and said, “That is really kind of you, Miss Schnee.”

 

    The white-haired woman simply hummed.

 

    They stood there for a few moments more, silently letting the stress of Calvin’s sudden news leak out of them, before Weiss spoke up again, “I suppose that means we will have to go out to eat.”

 

    Though it was veiled, Ruby could hear the disappointment in her boss’s voice. An idea occurred to her then, one which she voiced, “Not necessarily. If you don’t want to deal with going out to restaurant, I could cook.”

 

_ ‘She can cook?’  _ Weiss thought, surprised. “Do you have...training in that field, as well?”

 

    The redhead scratched her head, looking somewhat bashful, “I mean, I don’t have any formal training, no, but I used to cook for my team way back when, and I’ve been told I’m alright at it.”

 

    Weiss weighed it in her head for a moment. They could go to one of the many five-star eating establishments spread around the city of Atlas, but that would mean having to dress up and posture all night, having to worry about looking presentable for all the many cameras that would be undoubtedly pointing at her. That, and it would mean putting her new assistant in the position of having to do her job as Weiss’s bodyguard a day before scheduled, as well as the fact that Ruby had mentioned the previous night that she had no training in the more formal methods of eating. 

 

    On the other hand, allowing this woman who she had only known for a few days to cook for her was...unsettling. Some part of her didn’t trust the other woman, and she had doubts about her abilities as a cook. The idea of someone who was unqualified to handle food cooking for just seemed wrong.

 

    She thought over it for a few more minutes, balancing her options in her head, but eventually her paranoia won over. She shook her head saying, “No, that is alright. I would prefer to just go to a restaurant.” 

 

    Usually, Ruby would have simply taken that at face value, but there was something in the other woman’s tone that bugged Ruby. Through her actions these past two days and her body language right now, the ex-huntress could easily tell Weiss was uncomfortable with Ruby being here. She didn’t have the slightest idea why that was, but decided that Weiss’s reasons didn’t matter much. What did matter was that if these uncomfortable interactions continued on like this, the next several months (years, maybe) we're going to be miserable for the both of them.

 

    Though it was risky to contradict her boss so early in her job, Ruby decided,  _ ‘I should really speak up,’ _ and so she did. A not-quite-frustrated sigh slipped out of Ruby’s lips before she said, “Look, Miss Schnee, I get that this is your home and all, but we are going to be spending a lot of time together for as long as I am working here.” Weiss met her eyes for the first time since Calvin fled, and her expression was unreadable. It sent a chill down Ruby’s spine, but she continued on, “I’m not going to try and tell you what to do, but we don’t know each other that well yet, and it is my job to guard your life. It would probably be a good idea to become more comfortable around each other, don't you think?”

 

    Weiss almost,  _ almost _ , brushed her off. Her response, that Ruby didn’t need to be all that familiar with her to do her job(s), was poised on the tip of her tongue, but something stopped her. She wasn’t about to let this woman dictate what she would do in her own house and her legendary temper was already fanning its flames, but the redhead’s expression gave her pause.

 

    She was frowning.

 

    Now, Ruby Rose was by no means a little girl. Weiss knew from what she had read on her file that she was indeed a warrior, and that she was far from an innocent child, but something about the way the frown pulled at those bright silver eyes tugged at Weiss’s heartstrings in a way little else had before. Her rebuttal died on her lips, and for a moment, she simply stared. 

 

    A moment later, she too signed, a thought going through her head,  _ ‘She has a point...maybe I should just let her do this. You better not make me regret this, Rose.’ _ With that decided, Weiss conceded, “Alright, you may prepare dinner tonight, Miss Rose. Come knock on my door when you are done freshening up. I will be watching you cook.”

 

    Deciding that was the best she was going to get, the frown grew into another one of the bodyguard’s odd little smiles, and she said, “Yes ma’am, Miss Schnee, that’s fine by me.”

 

    Deciding that was the end of the discussion, the Schnee woman turned on her heel and left for her bedroom. Once she was out of sight, Ruby smiled, and, allowing just a bit of her childish nature to show through, gave a small fist-pump. “Progress,” she whispered.

 

**0000000000**

 

Weiss sighed, staring into the body-length mirror in her room. Her hand rested against the cool glass, and she simply stared at her own reflection. Her mind wandered a bit, but generally stayed focused on Calvin and his wife.

 

    Calvin was a good man, and had been kind to her over the years, and she was significantly concerned for him and his wife. Before she could go any further into the ruminations, though, a knock came from her bedroom door. “Yes?” she called.

 

    “Miss Schnee,” the voice of her bodyguard called though, “I’m done, so, if you’re hungry, we can go and cook something up.”

 

    Weiss didn’t react at first, sighing.  _ ‘You agreed to this, live with it,’ _ she told herself. She swept up her bolero from a nearby chair and threw it over her shoulders. After just a moment, she was in the hallway, her assistant blinking in a surprised manner at Weiss’s sudden appearance, evidently not having expected her to rush out of the door like she did. She recovered quickly though, and the began walking.

 

    While they were walking, the CEO took the opportunity to look at her guard. She was wearing a maroon long sleeve T-shirt bearing a faded emblem of Beacon on the front, as well as a pair of cargo pants. Her eyes caught on the handgun strapped to Ruby’s hip, and briefly wondered why she bothered to carry it with her around the house. It also aroused a bit of interest in her. Ever since her brief stint trying to become a huntress in her teens, she had only rarely held a weapon, and, even then, never a firearm.  _ ‘Now that I think of it, I don’t think I’ve ever actually fired a gun before. Odd,’ _ she thought. 

 

    Ruby spoke up then, “Do you have any preferences for what we should eat? I don’t much care, but I know you have a more  _ refined _ taste than me.” Her silver eyes caught the sharp blue, and Weiss found herself a bit surprised and the genuineness she could see there. It was a simple question, asked like it would be from one friend to the next as opposed to an employee to an employer. There was none of the fearful respect that filled the voice of most of her employees, but instead a simple conversational tone. It was not something Weiss knew how to deal with.

 

    She didn’t quite know why this sent a small shiver up her spine, but ultimately the CEO ignored it, accepting that the ex-huntress had no ulterior motives for asking her preference. “I don’t really care, but let’s keep it simple.” Not voiced was Weiss’s concern that the redhead might accidentally poison her if she had to cook anything too complicated.

 

    “Alright, I can work with simple.” Ruby said, before clicking her tongue, presumably running through recipes in her brain. By the time they had arrived at the kitchen, she had apparently decided, “Alright, you guys probably have enough stuff in the pantry to make some pasta, and that’s pretty simple. Fettuccini Alfredo, maybe.  Sound good?”

 

    Weiss was never the biggest fan of pastas, finding them often a bit too heavy for her palette, but she felt speaking up about it would be rude, so instead she nodded, saying simply, “That is fine.”

 

    Her bodyguard grew a small smile on her face, before turning and walking through one of the doors in the kitchen like a woman on a mission. Weiss raised a single eyebrow at that, and crossed her arms. It was not often she came into the kitchen, but she was pretty damn sure Ruby had just walked into a closet full of cleaning supplies.

 

    A second later, Ruby came back out looking sheepish, “You uh, have a lot of soaps.” Weiss just looked at her, outwardly stoic, but quietly amused. “Okay, yeah, I have no idea where the pantry is,” she motioned around the huge kitchen, “and there’s like eight doors in here.”

 

    Weiss remained silent, letting her bodyguard squirm a bit. She let a single white eyebrow rise up in faux annoyance before pointing a finger at the door to the pantry. Ruby thanked her, before rushing into the room. Its was a bit frustrating to have to all but hand guide the other woman around the building, but a small part of Weiss found it a bit...funny to be the one showing a trained huntress the ropes.  _ ‘That’s a new feeling...’ _ she thought.

 

    “Woah, it looks like a warehouse in here!” the redhead shouted from inside that pantry. That made Weiss grimace. She never did see any reason for the excess that her father had insisted on keeping around beyond just flaunting their family’s wealth. No one could ever eat as much food as was usually stored in the Schnee mansion. “I doubt Yang could even eat this many potatoes!”, she once more called out, only proving Weiss’s point. 

 

    It was another few minutes before Ruby came out of the pantry, arms laden with ingredients. Weiss watched as the other woman laid out the things that would come together to make the cheesy pasta on the counter. Not wanting to get in the way, Weiss remained on the opposite side of the counter from her assistant-turned-chef. “How do you plan to go about this?” Weiss asked.

 

    Ruby tried to sound somewhat professional, “Well, Miss Schnee, I’m going to do my best to remember how to make this, and we are going to have a nice meal. Now, where are the pots and pans?”

 

    Weiss was not one hundred percent certain where Calvin kept his cookware, so she gave her best guess, “I’m not entirely sure, but check those cabinets behind you.” Ruby checked inside of the light blue cabinets, coming out with a single aluminium strainer.

 

    “Well, not what I was looking for, but I’ll need this,” she said. The next cabinet she checked had what she was looking for, and with an “Aha!” she brought out a saucepan and boiling pot. 

 

    It was not often the billionaire actually  _ saw _ someone prepare food. Most of the time it was simply delivered to her via waiter at a restaurant or Calvin at the manor. She was quietly intrigued in watching her bodyguard go about crushing and slicing garlic cloves when the redhead spoke up, “You know, this was actually a recipe my Dad would do from time to time at home.”

 

    This...was actually fairly intriguing to Weiss. She was aware that her upbringing was fairly unorthodox, and had never really understood how ‘normal’ families operated beyond what she could glean from her books. “Really? The sauce was his recipe?” she asked.

 

    The redhead grinned, happy memories coming to mind, “Yeah, he always hated the canned stuff, so he started making his own. He always said ‘You had to make something with your own hands for it really to be worth anything.’”

 

_ ‘Well,  _ my _ father certainly didn’t share that ideology,’  _ the CEO thought. This talk of fathers, though, had her attention much more so than the uncomfortable idle conversation of the previous night. Careful to not even a little eagerness show for fear of looking childish, Weiss nodded along and asked, “Was he a cook?”

 

    Ruby took a knife and cut into a block of butter, adding it to the pan, “Nope, he’s a Huntsman, though he’s all but retired now. He started working as a teacher at SIgnal Academy a few years ago.”

 

    “Ah, so he was just the cook in your family?” she asked, tempering her interest. She took care not to show any kind of weakness here, and did her best to remain neutrally polite as she had for so many years. 

 

    At this, he smile turned rather sad. Still though, she didn't miss a beat with her task. After a moment, she said, “Yeah, he didn’t really have a choice though. My mother died when I was young.”

 

    “Oh,” was all Weiss could say, her own mind flashing back against her will to a few years ago.

 

_     Fire, roaring in the night, flames so high they seemed to lick the very clouds, twisted metal yielding to the flames- _

 

    She clenched her teeth,  _ forcing  _ her mind back to where she wanted it. After a second, the tension was put once more deep into her mind where it belonged. Even so, Weiss felt for the other woman, a feeling she was not very familiar with. “You...I am sorry for your loss, really.”

 

    Ruby’s eyebrows shot up, obviously not expecting the emotion in the normally icy woman’s voice. After a moment, however, the feeling was gone and Ruby sighed, beginning to mix the slowly forming sauce in the pan. “Thank you, but I’m fine,” her smile was genuine, “It was a long time ago, and I’ve long since finished mourning her. I do miss her though.”

 

    They were silent for a moment, and Ruby began to stir the sauce, which was coming together. She glanced over at the pot of water for the noodles, seeing that it was boiling. Weiss saw her brow furrow. She knew enough about cooking to know that sauces needed to be constantly stirred. Deciding to be polite, the Schnee woman asked, “Do you need some help?”

 

    Ruby looked a bit hesitant to let her boss help her cook, but relented on account of her lack of a third arm. “Ah, yeah, could you stir the sauce while I deal with the pasta?”

 

    Weiss nodded, and moved to Ruby’s side of the counter and got behind the oven. She could feel the heat coming off of the gas flame, but it wasn’t too uncomfortable. She picked up the spoon, and looked at the bubbling fluid with a slight grimace. Though she despised looking weak or inexperienced, she had learned that it was better than making a fool of herself by trying to do something she didn’t know how to do. “I must confess, I am not sure how to do this.”

 

    Luckily, Ruby understood that, though her boss was an intelligent woman, she grew up having all the menial household tasks done for her, and had anticipated something like this. Consciously trying to make her voice sound understanding rather than condescending, she said, “It’s easy. Here, look.” She took a step toward her, and reached her hand for her boss’s on instinct.

 

    It was all Weiss could do not to flinch away when her guard drew close. She  _ hated _ when people touched her, with the only exception being her sister. It was something she had learned to grit her teeth and bear over the course of her life, as few people saw fit to respect her personal space over the years. She had long since mastered the art of hiding those type of reactions, though, and none of her body language ever betrayed her, this time included.

 

    Only, the contact never came. Ruby’s hand hovered a few inches over where her own gripped the wooden spoon, close enough to show what the bodyguard intended to do. Kindly, the redhead asked, “May I?”

 

    The CEO blinked.  _ ‘She...asked for permission?’  _ she thought, thrown off by the unexpected kindness. She wasn’t used to that kind of...respect. It took Weiss a moment to process this, her heart beating in an odd way what was not entirely unpleasant. When she spoke, her voice came out slightly softer than she intended, “Go ahead.”

 

    Ruby smiled, and laid her hand over Weiss’s.

 

    Ruby’s hand was pleasantly warm, a bit rough from calluses that Weiss attributed to her years as a huntress, but still soft enough to feel almost...nice.

 

    “See, like this,” her assistant said, guiding her hand and spoon into the saucepan, stirring in slow, smooth motions. “Just keep up that motion, slowly.” her voice was almost close enough for Weiss to feel on her skin, and it made something in her shudder, though not in an entirely unpleasant way, “Just enough to keep it from sticking, but not too hard, or it’ll splash.”

 

    “Okay, I think I understand,” the white-haired woman said, continuing the motion as the other woman withdrew. Some small, bizzare part of her missed the contact.

 

    For a few minutes, the worked quietly as the scent of cheesy sauce filled the air. The silence was somewhat awkward, but much less so than the previous night. 

 

    Weiss expected having to sit through the whole process of cooking a meal would feel like an eternity, but as Ruby piled up fettuccine noodles and alfredo sauce in bowls, she found herself wondering where the past thirty minutes or so had gone.  _ ‘How strange…’ _ she thought. It made her a bit uncomfortable to think that she had lost track of time, but decided it didn’t matter.

 

    Ruby picked up each of the two bowls carefully, and said cheerfully, “I don’t know about you, Miss Schnee, but I am ready to eat.”

 

    “Yes, let’s,” she said shortly, not thinking anything else needed to be said.

 

    Ruby was beginning to get used to the clipped responses. They still put her down a bit, but she knew she would have to get past it if she ever wanted to enjoy her job working for the outwardly icey woman. She put the bowls on a tray, along with silverware and two drinks.

 

    The two women made their way to the dining room, and Ruby quickly set their food down.  Placing Weiss’s white wine at the head of the table and her water at its right hand, the sat down to eat.

 

    Weiss looked at the meal. It smelled wonderful, and nothing about it  _ looked _ bad. Additionally, she didn’t notice her guard do anything odd while preparing the dish. She had no reason to doubt its safety, yet some part of her still told her not to eat it, that it was dangerous, that she her bodyguard wasn’t trained to cook. She shook her head, doing her best to clear those thoughts.  _ ‘She’s already made it for me, and I agreed to let her. It would be rude not to eat.’  _ she reasoned. Carefully, she picked up her fork, unaware of the silver eyes watching her cautiously .

 

    Just as the Schnee was building the courage to begin eating, her assistant cleared her throat. Blue eyes snapped over to Silver, annoyed at the interruption. “You don’t have to eat it, you know. I get that you were raised differently than I was, so if you don’t feel comfortable, it’s not too late to go out to a restaurant,” Ruby said, doing her best not to sound patronising.

 

    The annoyance on Weiss’s face faded away like dew before the morning sun.  _ ‘That’s very considerate of her,’  _ she thought, before glancing back down at her plate,  _ ‘Damnit, I am going to eat this.’ _ “No, that is fine,” she began, “You already made this, I should eat it.”

 

    Without further ado, Weiss scooped up her first bite of pasta and put it in her mouth. It was rich and creamy, and had something  _ else _ to it that Weiss couldn’t quite put her finger on. After she swallowed, she looked back to her bodyguard and said, “This is very good, Miss Rose. You said it was your father’s recipe?”

 

    Once her boss had began eating, so did Ruby. She swallowed the bite in her mouth before answering, “Yeah, he would always make this whenever he got home from a mission, or whenever we had some kind of occasion in the house.”

 

    Weiss actually felt oddly compelled to keep this conversation going. It was rare that she ever wanted to hold up any sort of correspondence with another person beyond business, and it was a strangely pleasant feeling. “Was your father away often?” she asked politely, genuinely curious.

 

    The redhead shrugged, “Off and on, really. After mom died, he tried to stay home as much as he could, but we still needed to eat.”

 

    Weiss frowned. That seemed rather irresponsible, leaving children alone like that. She toyed around with the thought of voicing her thoughts before deciding against it.  _ ‘It would be rather rude to insult her father, probably,’ _ she thought.

 

    Regardless of Weiss’s inner thoughts, Ruby answered her unspoken question, “I mean, he didn’t exactly leave us  _ alone _ . It was me and my sister, Yang, at the very least once Yang was old enough to watch me. Usually, though, our uncle would come over for a week or so and cover for him.”

 

    Words seemed to come from Weiss’s mouth of their own volition, “Ah, whenever my father was away on business I was usually just left with the staff of the manor with my siblings.” Her eyes widened imperceptibly, and a small maelstrom of thoughts blasted through her head,  _ ‘What the hell was that? Why the hell did I tell her that?! What on Remnant…’  _  She  _ never _ spoke without a plan. Every syllable was planned and articulated with some intention in mind and with risks assessed. She hadn’t just... _ blurted _ something out like that in years -the back of her father’s hand had taught her that lesson.

 

    The ex-huntress was completely oblivious to her boss’s thoughts, and kept talking, “He would watch us pretty often. He actually tutored me in fighting for the longest time before I...uh, went off to Beacon.” She stopped there, suddenly falling silent.

 

    Ruby’s sudden silence is what drew Weiss away from her inner turmoil. Her pale blue eyes scanned her employee, searching for something. Ruby took an awkward bite of her pasta in the silence. Weiss may not have been the best at dealing with people on any level but professional, but she knew the queues for when a topic needed to be avoided.

 

    Usually, Weiss would simply allow the conversation to end there, but after listening to the other woman talk so animatedly about her family it seemed wrong for her to just fall silent. In a near-unheard-of turn of events, Weiss decided to urge the conversation along, “How was your uncle?”

 

    Outwardly surprised, a pair of silver eyes jolted up to mean inwardly stressed blue. It took Ruby a second to process the unexpected question before she spoke up, “He was nice enough, I guess. Had a pretty bad drinking problem, though. I say ‘had’, but he still does it. He was always good around us though.” She looked thoughtful for a moment, “It wasn't until later on that I understood why he drank. He had this tendency to get really snarky whenever he had a bit of liquor in him too.” She smirked slightly.

 

    Ruby didn’t seem keen on continuing that line of thought, though. “My sister, Winter, knew someone like that. I remember when she would come home on leave she would always complain about this one man who had the same problems as your Uncle. I never did catch his name, though,” She consciously regulated every word, doing her best to preserve the disarmingly pleasant conversation without losing control again.

 

    “Oh, really? Well I hope for her sake he didn't bug her too much.” Ruby said, taking another bite of the creamy pasta, “Uncle Qrow always had a tendency to tick off people, too.”

 

    “Did he ever frustrate you?” the CEO asked.

 

     Mouth full, Ruby shook her head. After swallowing, she explained, “Not much, really. By the time I was old enough to care about his drinking I had already accepted it as just who he was.” She was quiet for a moment more, before a smile creeped onto her face, “He always  _ hated _ my taste in music, though, and that could get kind of annoying.”

 

    That brought back a memory from earlier in the day, and Weiss had to, to her surprise, force herself to suppress a smile. She succeeded, and managed to keep her face neutral as she said, “Like that song you were listening too earlier, while exercising?”

 

    Ruby chuckled awkwardly and rubbed at the back of her head, a habit she had retained from her teenage years, and said, “Yeah, I've always had a thing for pop music. I like other stuff too, but something about it just works for me.” She seemed to have some kind of realization then, as she hurriedly continued, “Oh, uh, If you don’t want me playing music on the intercom, it’s fine. Or even if you don't like pop music, I’ll bring some headphones with me next time!”

 

    Weiss brought up her wineglass, taking a sip of the expensive beverage in order to hide the sly smile she could feel growing in her cheeks. “No, using the sound system is fine. No one else will need it. I don’t mind the songs either.” She set her glass down, her competitive side feeling a profound sense of satisfaction on what she was sure would be a bombshell for her new employee. She met Ruby’s eyes as she said, “It would be rather counter-intuitive if I did, considering that I was the one who sung that song you were listening to.”

 

    The bodyguard’s silver eyes grew to the size of saucers, and her cheeks colored a slight pink.  “Oh! Uh, oh my gosh, I didn’t realize that I was-wow, that must have been weird walking in on that! I had no idea that was your song, really!” Her hands played through her hair nervously, not worried that Weiss would be mad, but rather just embarrassed.  _ ‘Shit, that must have made me look so weird, like I was stalking her past or something! Damn it!’ _ the redhead thought.

 

    Weiss found herself amused. In fact, she  _ almost _ laughed, but clamped down on that impulse like a bear trap. As much as she found she enjoyed seeing the ex-huntress unbalanced, she figured it would be rude to leave her feeling awkward for too long, “It’s no problem, Miss Rose. I don’t mind if you listen to my old music.”

 

    Relieved that her boss didn’t seem to want to tease her about this, Ruby sighed, “Okay, that’s a relief. I was worried I had offended you or something.”

 

    Weiss shook her head and said, “Really, it is fine.” Weiss took another sip from her drink, letting the topic fall for fear of failing to suppress her own fluctuating feelings.  _ ‘This is bizarre, why am I losing my control over my emotions?’  _ she worried, her mind conflicted between being flustered at her newfound lack of self control and accepting the company of the other woman and simply enjoying herself.

 

    With no obvious answer coming to her, the CEO decided that for now, she would simply do her best and think about this later on. Her mind was temporarily appeased by this, but some unease still sat in her stomach. She did not know what was happening to her, and, for lack of anything else to do, she brought her wineglass up and took a long drink from it.

 

**0000000000**

 

    Their dinner continued on like that for a few minutes more, the two women eating and talking about nothing of real importance until the hour had grown late and their bellies became full. Weiss’s internal struggle continued to conflict with the enjoyment she felt, and she was eager to retreat back to the quiet of her room where she knew what was what. Once Ruby had thrown out what pasta the slight atlesian didn’t eat and washed both bowls, they each retired to their respective rooms.

 

    “Goodnight, Miss Schnee,” Ruby said, suppressing the satisfied smile when her boss replied in same. Ruby shut her bedroom door and leaned back against it. It wasn’t  _ joy _ that she was feeling, but Ruby did feel quite content with the progress she had made today. As it was, her boss seemed much less reserved than on the previous night.  _ ‘At this rate,’ _ she thought,  _ ‘I may even manage to make a friend out of her. Eventually. Probably. Maybe. We’ll see.’ _

 

    Pleased with herself, Ruby set about her nightly preparations. Somewhere deep inside of her heart, she dared to hope for the future, a feeling that had long since been vacant. As she reached for her toothbrush, however, a sharp tightness in her left shoulder checked that feeling, reminding her that  _ nothing  _ was ever guaranteed.

 

    Ruby sighed, doing her best to push down the melancholy building in her chest, which was doing its best to smother that little flicker of hope.  _ ‘This will be different,’ _ she told herself, praying that the thought was true. 

 

    She went to bed that night not happy, but hopeful for her time here. The silence weighed on her, but she fell asleep easy enough, with the knowledge that tomorrow would not be spent idle.

 

**0000000000**

 

    Weiss sighed, finally letting her guard fully down now that she was alone once more. She sat down on her bed and held her face in her hands. She stayed like that for a time, letting the mental tension that had been building up over the last few hours slowly leak from her. She shook her head and reached down to finally take off her heels. 

 

    For the first time that night, she noticed that the chill that usually suffused her was gone, instead replaced by a feeling that was almost...warm.

 

    The feeling sat high up in her chest sent a strangely pleasant tingle down her spine. A part of her reveled in this, but a larger part of herself was frustrated. She huffed out a sigh, shaking her head angrily at herself,  _ ‘What the  _ hell _ was that?’ _ She all but tore the tie she used to keep her hair up off of her head, and ran her hands over her face.  _ ‘Why was I so...extroverted! I couldn’t even control my own  _ face _!’  _ she thought, her mind flashing back to her almost-laugh.

 

    She began to roughly undress herself, eager to get out of her dress and into her more comfortable nightwear. Once she was down to just her undergarments, she pulled a soft sleeping gown over her head. All the while, this feeling of frustration was building up pressure inside of her like a kettle about to boil over, and when she finally laid down in her bed, her hands came up to her face.

 

    She found her cheeks to be uncomfortably warm, and, upon thinking back to the events of the day, found she had the strangest urge to both laugh and cry all at once. It was bizarre, and unlike anything the woman had ever felt before.  _ ‘What on Remnant is happening to me?’ _

 

_ ‘It must be because of Miss Rose,’ _ she reasoned,  _ ‘That’s the only thing that's changed, really, aside from Calvin leaving.’ _ A shot of regret was added to the swirling cocktail of emotions currently confusing Weiss with the thought,  _ ‘I should never let Winter convince me to do this!’ _ She rolled over onto her side, confused and bitter towards herself and not knowing exactly why.

 

    She had an urgent need to find the root of whatever was causing her to feel so confused, which brought her back to her previous line of reasoning,  _ ‘It’s because of that woman, it has to be! No, no, it’s not her fault. Not really. It must have been my own actions, then! I was behaving so strangely, and now I’m paying for it because I allowed myself to get too damn comfortable around a woman who I barely know. If I don’t let myself to act like that, then maybe I will feel better.’ _

 

    The analytical part of her brain was temporarily appeased by this, seeing it as both logical and correctable. Though, it is a rare day when someone’s brain and heart both function in tandem, so her mind being appeased did very little to calm the warring emotions in her breast. She curled up where she lay, and didn’t have any ability to do anything but weather the storm her own heart had pulled over her. 

 

    In a moment of weakness, she lifted her hands away from her face and looked at them in the moonlight. They glistened with moisture, and it was only then that Weiss felt the tears on her face.  _ ‘Why am I like this?’ _ she asked herself, but the answer to that question was much too complex to be solved in one night. The tears continued, and the woman who tried so hard for all of her life to be strong, broke down and cried quietly in the silence, alone and confused.

 

    Not once that night, as the ice crept back into her heart, did she remember the genuine smile she wore just an hour earlier in the presence of her bodyguard. It took a long time for Weiss to fall asleep that night, and she welcomed the blissful oblivion of sleep.

 

    At least tomorrow, she would be back to work.


	8. 8: On the Job

**The Next Morning**

 

    The day started off like any other for Ruby Rose.

 

    That was a boldfaced lie.

 

    The day started off rather strangely for Ruby Rose, who awoke with a gasp, eyes darting around her environment panickedly. After a moment, her mind caught up with her body and remembered where she was and why she was awake at Seven A.M., and calmed down. 

 

    Today was her first day on the job. 

 

    After she drug herself out of the criminally comfortable (if glaringly white) bed, she set about getting ready for her day.

 

**0000000000**

 

The day started off like any other for Weiss Schnee.

 

    No, really.

 

    Okay, that was another bold faced lie.

 

    Weiss awoke from a sleep almost as tired as when she had laid down. Her mind wavered, almost falling back into the turmoil she had been consumed by last night, but she remembered,  _ ‘today, there is work to be done.’ _ This successfully grounded her in the moment, though it had the side effect of causing a small headache to form behind her eyes.

 

    While she did enjoy that working occupied her mind and kept that damn cold yearning (that still perplexed her) at bay, she didn’t find the menial day-to-day paperwork  _ pleasant. _ In fact, she rather loathed it, but accepted it a necessary for her mental health.

 

    Hopefully, her new assistant would help to lessen the load.

 

**0000000000**

 

    After they had both prepared for the day and ate a good breakfast consisting of eggs and sausage, courtesy of Ruby’s cooking skills and Weiss’s surplus of food, they both walked out of the massive front doors of the manor. They descended the short few steps towards the driveway and the limousine that waited there.

 

    Weiss wore a light blue dress with a white jacket thrown over it. It was held together in the front by a single black button, and those with keen eyes could see a flash of red that lined the inside of the coat. Ruby noticed this, and let a small smirk tug her lips, amused at the break in color scheme.

 

    The huntress herself wore the same two-piece suit Weiss had given her on the day she signed her contract. It consisted of a pair of long black pants that were lightweight and flexible, along with an equally dark suit jacket that she opted to leave open. Beneath the jacket, she wore a dark red button-down shirt with a solid black tie hanging down the front. On the left side of the jacket was a steel pin bearing her name, the Schnee Symbol, and the phrase ‘Personal Assistant and Security Detail to Weiss Schnee’ in small print underneath her name. The clothes were soft and smooth, and flexible in all the right places. Ruby could tell they were expensive, and were very comfortable to wear (and it  _ was _ a feat making formal dress feel comfortable to Ruby), but the real comfort to the redhead was the familiar weight of  _ Rosebud _ resting in the shoulder holster beneath Ruby’s left arm and her knife tucked inside of her right shoe. 

 

    Speaking of shoes, therein lied the one discrepancy in Ruby’s dress that she refused to compromise on. 

 

    As they both stepped onto the pavement from the stairs, Weiss cringed as she asked, for the third time that morning, “And you  _ insist _ on wearing combat boots?”

 

    And for the fourth time that morning, Ruby looked her boss in the eye and said, “Yes, Miss Schnee. Dress shoes would be pretty useless if I actually had to guard your body. Seeing as how you hired me to be a bodyguard, I think this is a compromise.”

 

    The businesswoman sighed, annoyed but accepting. She started walking towards the vehicle and said, “Alright, well, I suppose I can live with that. Come on.” She then thought,  _ ‘I suppose that with her having been a huntress, she can be afforded a few eccentricities.’ _

 

    Wordlessly, the redhead followed her boss into the car. They climbed into the back seat of the limousine, and after a moment, they were on their way. It was a thirty minute drive to the SDC Building, as the manor was on the outskirts of the city and the headquarters was downtown, so Weiss decided that she should probably brief her newest employee on the way. “Miss Rose,” she began, looking away from the window and towards her Personal Assistant.

 

    Her eyebrows rose as she saw the other woman wholeheartedly paying attention to running her own hand over the plush seat she was sitting on. As if startled, the woman’s silver eyes snapped up to meet Weiss’s and an embarrassed chuckle rose from her lips. “Sorry, yes?”

 

    Weiss let that hang in the air for a moment, gears turning in her head. She couldn’t help but think of Ruby’s fascination with the soft seats as strangely...innocent for the former warrior. Something in her that she wouldn’t have recognized if not for the previous night shifted at that, but she very quickly stamped down on it, telling herself,  _ ‘No, this is your employee. She is not, and will not be, your friend. Be professional.’ _ She cleared her throat, and began to explain, “Yes, well, once we arrive at the company building, I will show you the way to my office. I had some people move a secondary desk into the room for you, and that will be your normal workstation.”

 

    Ruby nodded along, listening intently.

 

    “I will show you a few important areas on the way there, and then we will get to work. At four o’clock, I have arranged for you to meet with my head of security, Clara Herder, and she will give you a more comprehensive tour of the premises then. Any questions?” she asked. As she spoke, Ruby’s eyes never moved from hers, the gunmetal grey absorbing her every word. It was interesting to see how quickly she could shift on a dime between carefree and business, and Weiss was curious to see how this would affect her work.

 

    A polite smile graced Ruby’s lips, and she said, “Just one, if I have any concerns about something security related, should I tell you or Miss Herder?”

 

    Weiss waved her hand dismissively, “Oh, just go ahead and tell me. That goes for if you ever need anything either, I have more than enough funds to cover any business-related expenses you have, and a few non-business ones too if it is important.”

 

    Slowly, the sounds of the suburbs were beginning to be replaced with the noise of the city. Ruby nodded and said, “I’ll remember that.” With that, they fell into silence. Weiss busied herself by pulling out her scroll, going over a few recent updates about the state of affairs in Atlas, while Ruby was content with simply listening to the rumble of the engine.

 

   Soon enough, the shadow of the Schnee Dust Company loomed over the two of them.

 

**0000000000**

 

The lobby of the building was a wide, opulent place. The tile floors were white and polished to be almost mirror like, and the wall were a more opaque white. At intervals of a few feet down the length of both of the lobby’s walls were glass columns. Most of them were white, but every third column was a different color, matching that of a specific type of Dust At the end of the lobby was a long counter where four people sat behind computers, working on various tasks Ruby wasn’t interested in. Next to them was several elevators that would lead up to the rest of the tower. Dominating the wall above the secretaries’ heads was a giant, silver, twelve-pointed snowflake, with the deep blue words beneath reading “Schnee Dust Company”

 

    The two women began walking through the lobby, the sound of their footsteps drowned out by the various people milling about the room. The room was populated with people, from workers dressed in business-attire filling into elevators, to people sightseeing and asking the counter-workers questions about the company, to reporters and journalists snapping pictures of the architecture and people. Even so, a odd hush permeated the lobby. It wasn’t quiet by any means, but the room was absent of the cacophony of voices that one would expect to fill a room with so many people.

 

    Once Ruby realized this, she took a closer look at the people in the room and found that many of them simply were not talking. There was no idle chatter between workers waiting for an elevator, or among tourist as the snapped pictures on their Scrolls. It all just seemed like the didn’t say anything that didn’t need to be said. Ruby couldn’t decide if that was a positive or not.

 

    As the walked towards the elevators, Weiss didn’t spare a glance at anyone in the lobby, walking single-mindedly towards the elevators. Ruby, by her side, continued to absorb her surroundings. The next thing she noticed was that against the walls between each column was what looked like a steel cabinet with a glass window on the front face. Through that window, Ruby could see a single Atlesian Knight, one of the newer ‘200’ models, in each case.  _ ‘That’s some heavy security,’  _ Ruby thought, before shaking her head.  _ ‘Well, with the White Fang as desperate as they are, I guess it makes sense.’ _

 

    On the way to the elevators, the two women passed by a camera crew who stood in front of one of the blue ‘Ice’ colored columns. As they passed, Ruby overheard a Newswoman giving a report, “-Company’s plans for a continued expansion of mining efforts in light of a recent drop in profits for the goliath corporation. This comes on the heels of Weiss Schnee’s ascension to the head of the company, and our sources say that there are even talks of buying land in Menag-”

 

    Ruby’s brows furrowed after being pulled out of earshot by her boss’s pace. Deciding that whatever information she had gleaned from the newswoman was unimportant, she continued on. As the two reached the elevators, Ruby stood up a bit taller. The workers there parted for the CEO and her Assistant without prompt. One of the elevators opened, and the Schnee stepped inside. Ruby followed quickly. 

 

    The elevator looked like it could hold at least nine more people, but not a single on of the office workers stepped forward. The door closed quietly, and the sound of the lobby was replaced by elevator music.

 

    A sigh escaped Weiss, whose shoulders slumped just slightly. “Something wrong?” Ruby asked, feeling awkward in the big elevator.

 

    The shorter woman shook her head, and answered, “I wish they wouldn’t do that.”

 

    Ever curious, Ruby asked, “Do what?”

 

    Weiss made a vague motion at the door of the elevator, “ _ That _ . They act like I’m some kind of- that I would- ugh.” She shook her head again, her off-center ponytail swished behind her back, “It doesn’t matter.”

 

    Ruby was tempted to continue their conversation, but Weiss stepped forward and held her scroll against the scanner on the elevator's control panel. After a moment, an automated voice said, “Welcome, Miss Schnee.” Wordlessly, Weiss pushed the button for the top floor, and the elevator began moving.

 

    All was silent save for the elevator music as they ascended up the tower. Ruby was a bit curious as to what they needed so many floors for, but reasoned,  _ ‘They have like a quarter of Remnant’s Lien, I doubt the floor numbers were a problem.’ _

 

    With a soft  _ ding _ the elevator came to a stop, and the automated voice said, “Fiftieth Floor: Board Room and CEO Office,” as the doors slip open with a quiet  _ hiss _ . 

 

    Suppressing the urge to roll her eyes at the white and blue decor, Ruby stepped into the floor. 

 

    “This is the top floor of the building, and, in turn, the smallest. This is where we will spend most of our time during the work day,” she began to explain, her heels clicking on the polished white tiles. This floor was arranged like a wide hallway. The wall to their left held five portraits, and the wall to their right was bare, holding only a few opaque windows and a brown wooden door. At the end of the hallway was another door, this one of solid white steel bearing the Schnee logo on the front and a frosted window at head height with the letters “Chief Executive Officer” cast in silver underneath.

 

    The first portrait they passed as they walked was of an old man. His body was big, burly. He had a medium sized beard that covered the lower half of his face, and a small smile graced his face. His eyes were a cold blue that matched his short cropped white hair, but shined with a kind of pride. Most people would’ve left it at that, but Ruby saw something else. The portrait was exceptionally well painted, and Ruby could make out the pale lines along his cheek as scars half-hidden by facial hair and the weary, is happy, look in his eyes. He was a fighter, and Ruby could see that as if he were standing right in front of her. The plaque beneath the frame read “Nicholas Schnee”.

 

    Weiss noticed Ruby’s staring, and startled the woman by saying, “That was my grandfather.” 

 

    Ruby figured as much, but nodded and replied, “He seems like a good guy from what I’ve heard of him.” The next painting had the same man, along with another woman and a small girl. Weiss’s Grandfather in this picture was smiling a happy smile, and had one hand wrapped around the woman, and the other laying on the girl’s shoulder. The woman was pretty, but definitely no supermodel. She, unlike the man next to her, had brown hair that fell to her shoulders and an equally as kind look in her green eyes. 

 

    The girl, though, was much more animated. She couldn’t have been more than eight years old, and wore a bright, innocent smile. It reminded Ruby of the picture she had of her and Yang’s childhood. It brought a quirk to her lips. “They look happy,” she said simply.

 

    There was an agreeing hum next to her before Weiss said, “Yes, they do.”

 

    The next picture, however, was different. It was a portrait of a thin man with close-cropped black hair. He sported a bushy mustache that Ruby almost giggled at. His eyes were a cold blue, the same blue Ruby saw in her employer. There was something odd about this man, though. Even in the painting, his lips were pressed into a thin line, and his eyes were stern.  _ ‘He looks very...proud,’  _ the ex-huntress decided, but it wasn’t the same pride that the previous Schnee had shown. Beneath his portrait read “Jacques Schnee.”

 

    “That’s your father?” Ruby asked, a hand absently fiddling with her crimson tie.

 

    Weiss was silent for just a fraction of a second, but Ruby noticed her brief hesitation, “...Yes.”

 

    A part of the younger woman wanted to ask Weiss about that, but she decided it would probably be better for her to not destroy what little progress she had made so far with the Schnee she was hoping to befriend. Silently, she moved to the next portrait, the second to last one.

 

    This one had another family, though once more it was different to the Nicholas’s version. This painting showed five people. There was Weiss’s father, who’s face had not changed from that stern, prideful look that was starting to get on Ruby’s nerves (though she didn’t know why), but what caught her attention was the other woman in the picture. Weiss’s mother had a weathered, tired look on her face. She looked far older than she should have, and Ruby couldn’t help but look back to the painting of the small woman as a grinning child.  _ ‘ Such a difference...in all the pictures I have of mom, she looks so happy. Oum, what could have happened to Weiss’s mom…?’ _

 

    She wasn’t given any time to ponder this, though, as her boss didn’t stop with her here. Weiss marched right past, not so much as glancing at the painting. Ruby spared the painting another look, taking in the three other people in an instant. There was the two Schnee daughters sitting with a younger boy between the two. On that boy’s face was the only smile in the family.

 

    The final painting, which Weiss also seemed resolute in not looking at, is what  _ really _ caught Ruby’s eye, however. It, like the previous odd numbered paintings, showed a single person’s face. This one was of a woman with deep blue eyes and a sharp face. Her hair was white as the mountains of Atlas, and her skin was flawless save for a single scar running across her left eye. The painting was masterfully painted, and Ruby’s could have marveled at any particular piece of it, but what really caught her attention was the  _ eyes. _

 

    Unlike the other two portraits, this woman didn’t seem to beam with pride. No, to Ruby’s surprise, she looked almost…

 

_ ‘Sad…’ _

 

    The plaque beneath the portrait read, “Weiss Schnee”

 

    Ruby shook her head, and turned back to Weiss, who was standing by the first door in the hallway with her arms crossed, seemingly impatient. Ruby spared one more glance at the wall of portraits, noting a bit strangely that the space next to Weiss’s portrait, where the previous ones held the picture of the CEO’s family, was left blank. The rest of the wall leading down to the door to Weiss’s office was also blank, leaving room for the future Schnee’s as well.

 

    “Are you planning on spending your first day staring at my portrait?” Weiss said with some measure of ice in her voice.

 

    Ruby felt her ears warm in embarrassment. Trying to play it off, she let a smile slip onto her lips and said, “Sorry, this was the first picture without a moustache in it. I was kinda throwed off for a second.”

 

    Weiss said nothing, but Ruby saw her lips quirk shoulders shake a bit with repressed laughter. Seeing that as a victory, the bodyguard pulled away from the paintings and walked over to her boss.

 

    When Ruby caught up with her boss, Weiss cleared her throat and said, “Well, if you’re done admiring the art, I can actually give you a tour of this floor.” When Ruby didn’t immediately respond, the woman continued speaking, an icy tone to her voice, “This is the main conference room. Any large or important meetings will be held here.” She motioned to the frosted windows, “These can become clear or opaque, depending on the nature of the conference inside.”

 

    Ruby nodded, saying simply, “Neat.”

 

    Weiss seemed to bristle a bit at the oversimple answer, before forcing a breath out through her nose to calm herself. She turned on her heel, and her ponytail swished across the Schnee Sigil on her back. The Schnee’s heels clacked along the tile floor, and Ruby’s boots were a near-silent whisper of rubber-on-ceramic.

 

    As they got close, Ruby noticed that there was no knob on the door. Instead, Weiss placed her palm flat on the door where the knob would usually be located. After a moment, a small  _ ping  _ sounded from the door, along with a female voice announcing, “Welcome, Miss Schnee.” Miss Schnee, however, did not move her hand, and after a moment, the previously invisible scanner turned orange. Weiss punched a numerical code into the device before the voice spoke again, “New user registry enabled, please place your hand on the scanner.”

 

    Weiss stepped to the side, and motioned her new employee forward. “Go on, Miss Rose. The lock needs your biometrics to log you in.”

 

    Ruby nodded, suddenly feeling the urge to gulp. It was inane that she felt a little twinge of fear at what she was about to do, but in a way, Ruby guessed, this was symbolic. Once she did this, her new life as Weiss Schnee’s personal assistant would begin. “Okay,” she said simply.

 

    Ruby stilled her shaking hand, and pressed it against the scanner. The door hummed quietly for a moment before saying “Please state your name.”

 

    “Ruby Rose.”

 

    “Welcome, Miss Rose.”

 

    The door opened.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A bit of a shorter chapter here for you guys, but the writing has been coming slow and I felt this was a good stopping point! With end-of-semester stuff going on, my schedule is going to be right fucked for the next week, so I thought that this was a good stopping point. Give you guys something to chew on, right? I hope you enjoyed, the next chapter is gonna be a fun one.
> 
> Bonus points to anyone who can guess where I got the name “Clara Herder” from. I’ll give you a hint: the last name is a clue.
> 
> -Order


	9. 9: In The Office

   The heavy steel door swung open with a near silent  _ click _ , and Ruby took her first steps into the CEO's office. The first thing Ruby noticed upon entering was the Atlas skyline in all it's concrete glory beyond the window that took up all of the back wall. Through it, she could see everything, from the shining beacon of Atlas Academy's CCT Tower, to the White Sea that hugged Atlas's southern coast. There were two desks in the room, one of which was front and center, seemingly made from polished marble which bore a silver, twelve-pointed snowflake on its front face. The top of the desk, like the rest of the office, was barren of any personal items, and (unlike the rest of the office) was covered in a glowing blue grid, faded dark in an obvious standby mode.

 

    The second desk didn’t quite match the decor of the room, being a darker steel-gray color. It sat to the left of the door, and looked to be a hasty addition. Unlike the obviously more expensive desk, this one didn’t have built-in projector. Instead, what Ruby assumed to be her desk had a small, palm sized projector on the desk and little else. 

 

    The only other piece of furniture in the room was a small table tucked in the far corner of the room. A machine sat on that table, one which Ruby recognized immediately. “You...have a coffee maker in your office?”

 

    Once the CEO herself followed Ruby into the room, the marble desktop lit up, projecting a hologram of the Schnee sigil into the air for a moment before changing to a computer screen. Hearing her employee’s question, Weiss let a shadow of a smirk show and said, “I am in charge of one of the wealthiest companies on Remnant. I am afforded a few eccentricities.” 

 

    Ruby snorted, amused. She eyed the machine another moment, before turning to the other desk and splaying her hands over the cool surface, “I’m guessing this is my desk?” 

 

    Weiss stood next to her. Nodding, she said, “Yes, it is. You will be spending most of your time at work here.”

 

    Ruby hummed in the back of her throat, “I noticed that you don't have a secretary or anything.”

 

    “I never thought I needed one. I happen to enjoy working,” she began, walking back towards the center of the room, “Now, though, my workload has been increasing due to new circumstances -which you will be briefed on-, and I can no longer support it all.” She sat at her own desk, pulling up a few windows and files, pulling up things Ruby would need to see as she talked, “Usually, I would just increase my work hours, but Winter…” she trailed off, leaving the sentence up in the air.

 

    Ruby laughed, turning to look at her boss, “Let me guess, overbearing older sister says you ‘need more sleep’?”

 

   Weiss looked up from her screen, sharp blue eyes showing just a hint of humor, “You say that like you know from experience.”

 

    Ruby leaned against her desk and smiled at the colder woman, “Let's just say that Yang Xiao Long is the kind of woman who doesn’t take ‘no’ for an answer. Especially when it comes to her ‘baby sis’.” She curled her fingers in air quotes.

 

    Weiss chuckled at that, shaking her head lightly, “Yes, Winter had her moments, too.” She sat forward in her desk chair after that, her composure turning more serious, “But anyway, as for your job, as my personal assistant you will be doing things such as sorting my schedule and prioritizing documents I need to see. Also, according to Winter,” she grimaced, “you are to ‘ensure that I maintain my health’. Other than that, quite simply, you will do whatever I need you to do.”

 

     “Ok, that seems reasonable,” Ruby replied, brushing off any offense she could have felt about the last comment and walked over by Weiss’s desk. She looked out the window, “What about my responsibilities as your guard?”

 

    “Well, that is much more straightforward,” she said, her eyes never leaving her computer screen as she began to set up Ruby’s profile on the SDC’s internal network, “Your job as my bodyguard is to ensure my safety. I’ve seen that you have all the appropriate clearances. I can answer any questions about the security measures of the building, if you have any.”

 

    Ruby looked out over the Atlas skyline, her eyes catching one building in particular. It was less of a building, actually, and more of a construction site. Maybe a quarter mile from the SDC building, a mostly-constructed skyscraper stretched up into the sky, just a bit higher than the building Ruby and Weiss were currently in. “Miss Schnee?”

 

    Weiss, who was still focused solely on her computer, acknowledged her with a hum.

 

    “Is this glass bulletproof?”

 

    Briefly, Weiss’s hands halted on the keyboard. “I actually do not know,” she admitted, before the sound of her fingers tapping on the keyboard projected on the surface of her desktop picked up again.

 

    Ruby hummed, wordlessly reaching into her coat and drawing out two Items. She then placed these two Items together, and began working one of them onto the other. 

 

    All the while, silence reigned in the CEO’s office, aside from the sound of typing, and a light scraping sound coming from the bodyguard’s Items.  Weiss was almost done setting up Ruby’s profile, but was interrupted by an odd  _ clack-clack _ noise that she didn’t recognize. Her brow scrunched together, and she swivelled her office chair to face the noise, which originated from her bodyguard. She looked just in time to see the ex-huntress raise up  _ Rosebud _ , along with the suppressor she had just finished screwing onto the muzzle, to point at the window and squeeze the trigger twice.

 

**_POP POP_ **

 

    The  _ loud _ noise rang in her ears, matched in volume by the cry of “ _ Heilige Scheiße _ !” from the startled businesswoman.

 

    The now crushed bullets clacked against the tiles as the green field of energy that had stopped them faded into nothing. “A kinetic barrier, damn!” she sounded impressed, “Seems like Mister Schnee was more paranoid than I thought, those don’t come cheap,” Ruby said, flicking the gun to ‘safe’ and clearing the chamber.

 

   Weiss barely registered the words. Instead, her eyes were locked firmly on the place where the .45 caliber handgun had shot her window. She tried to collect herself and still her pounding heart as she said, “Miss Rose, can you please tell me why the  _ hell _ you just fired a gun  _ in my office _ ?”

 

    Ruby kept the gun out, deciding to let the barrel cool off for a moment before she removed the suppressor. Now that her aura was in such short supply, she really didn’t want to risk burning her hand. “I was seeing if your windows were bulletproof,” she said simply, tapping her hand on the suppressor to see if it was still hot. It was.

 

    “I could’ve just pulled it up on the computer!” Weiss said, still a little frazzled. Her heart was slowing down, finally, but that little surge of adrenaline was still burning through her veins. It felt...good.

 

    “Yeah, but that would’ve taken a while. This way was much more efficient,” she replied, finally meeting her boss’s eyes. Ruby expected her to be mad, but she was surprised to find that very little actual anger actually lingered in those pale blue eyes. Frustration, maybe, but very little anger. In fact, Ruby thought that she even looked just a little bit amused.

 

    Weiss shook her head, a sigh working its way up from her lungs. She  _ wanted _ to be mad, but she simply didn’t have it in her. A part of her couldn’t help but admire that gaul of the ex-huntress. Still, though, “But was shooting the window  _ really _ necessary, Miss Rose?”

 

    Ruby looked down and felt the suppressor again. This time, it was warm enough to touch comfortably, so she began to unscrew it. She hummed first, a sly smile slipping onto her lips, then said, “Maybe not, but,” she met her boss’s eyes once more, “I am the personal bodyguard to one of the wealthiest woman on Remnant. I am afforded a few eccentricities.”

 

    A part of Weiss was still mad at the other woman, and another felt no small amount of frustration, but a larger part simply felt the bizarre urge to laugh.  _ ‘Oh, Winter, what on Remnant have you gotten me into.’ _ “Maybe so, but next time you get the urge to discharge a weapon in my office, please ask me first.”

 

    “Noted.”

 

    The ex-huntress finished unscrewing the suppressor and removed it from the gun. Weiss watched her as she did it, her heart finally calm again. The weapon interested her, she would admit only to herself. She rubbed a hand against her slightly sore ear and asked, “Aren’t those things supposed to make the gun quiet?”

 

    Ruby shrugged, tucking the gun and suppressor back into her underarm holster, “Kind of. They don’t work like they do in the movies. The suppressor definitely makes the ‘bang’ a lot quiet _ er _ ” she emphasized the ‘er’, “but nowhere near silent. At least, not with a .45 like  _ Rosebud _ .” She tapped her right ear, “If I shot it in a confined space like this without the suppressor on, it would’ve run the risk of hurting your ears.”

 

    Weiss watched as she stooped down to collect the crushed lead bullets from the floor. “Why did you need to know whether or not the windows were bulletproofed so urgently, anyway?”

 

    Ruby scooped up the shell casings as well, before pointing out of the window with the hand that wasn’t currently full of metal, “You see that construction site over there?”

 

    Weiss followed where Ruby had pointed, thankful that the morning sunlight cut through the city’s smog so easily, and nodded. “Yes, I see it,” she answered as Ruby casually dumped the remains of the bullets into a small waste bin.

 

    “Minimal security, line of sight, elevated position,” Ruby listed off like she was reading off of a grocery list, “That position at the top of the construction site is almost ideal for a sniper. If this glass was puncturable, then all a shooter would need to contend with is the construction workers, who wouldn’t be there at certain points of the day due to workers unions, and the relatively high wind around high rises, which could be pretty easily adjusted for.” She was quiet for a moment, before saying, “Also, that building is about four hundred meters away. Any marksman worth their salt can make that shot.”

 

    Weiss was stunned. She was a smart woman and she knew it, but the exposure of her office had never once crossed her mind as a safety concern. “How do you know all of that?” she asked, her eyes shruggling to move away from the suddenly threatening construction site.

 

    When she did turn to look at her bodyguard, however, she saw an almost-sad smile on her face. “I was a sniper when I was a huntress,” she explained, “and I’ve had to make shots like that before.” Then, she turned away from the window to look at Weiss, and the sunlight seemed to make her silver eyes glow, “And if I wanted you dead,  _ that _ would be how I would kill you. That’s how I know.”

 

**0000000000**

 

    After the eventful first few minutes on the job, the two women settled down a bit. Ruby began to set up her workstation, punching her personal information into the profile that Weiss had made for her and running through the programs on the computer that she wasn’t one-hundred percent sure of how to use.  After that, Weiss sent Ruby her first batch of paperwork to sort through.

 

    Ruby’s job was to sort through any papers not marked ‘Confidential, CEO Eyes Only’, and prioritize them for Weiss. This meant that, say, a profit report from some mom-and-pop dust shop out in the middle of a place Yang would’ve proudly called ‘Bumfuck, Nowhere’ was less important than an update on a large merger with another corporation. Additionally, Ruby also pulled up some of the security blueprints for the office to look over between files. “Excuse me, Miss Schnee?” she asked, breaking the silence in the room.

 

    Weiss looked up from a hard-copy file sitting on her desk for a brief second before looking back down, “Yes?”

 

    “Can I make requests for small changes to the office security measures?”

 

    That got Weiss’s attention. She glanced up, suddenly more interested in the conversation. “Why do you ask? Did you find a weakness in the security? Again?”

 

    Ruby shook her head, “No, it’s all very top-notch, but I’d like to make a few adjustments. Personal preferences, more than anything.”

 

    Weiss tapped her fingers on the desk for a moment, pondering whether or not she should allow it. Eventually, she shook a strand of platinum hair out of her face and said, “I don’t see why not, so long as it isn’t anything drastic.”

 

    Ruby leaned back into her office chair, letting it slide back on it’s wheels until it bumped against the left wall of the office, just a few feet behind her desk. She tapped her right fist against the wall, “The schematics of the room don’t show anything important right in here, so I wanted to know if I could have a concealed weapons locker built into the wall in case of emergencies.”

 

    Weiss’s brows furrowed, and an odd shiver went up her spine. Not an unpleasant feeling, but a confusing one. “What kind of things do you plan on putting in there?” she asked.

 

    The bodyguard shrugged, “Nothing much, maybe a rifle or a shotgun.” She patted her side where her underarm holster lay concealed by her suit jacket, “There isn’t much in the city of Atlas that I can’t take down with  _ Rosebud _ here, but something with a little more  _ oomf _ never hurt anybody.” A beat of silence passed, before Ruby corrected herself, “Well, that’s not really true, considering they’re  _ guns _ , but you get my point.”

 

    Weiss thought about it for a moment. Honestly, it was curiosity more than anything that made her say, “Yes, but I want to see what you plan on storing in my office before you bring it in.”

 

    At that, a genuine smile grew on the warrior’s face, “Oh, Miss Schnee, that is no problem at all! Since you let me move one of my gun safes over, I have plenty to choose from. Plus,” she leaned forwards back onto her desk, her grin growing an extra few millimeters, “I  _ always _ love to show off my babies.”

 

    A single white eyebrow raised, equal parts intrigued and confused at Ruby’s eagerness to break out her firearm collection. Weiss opened her mouth and almost said, ‘I look forward to it’, but then she remembered what she promised herself the night before.  _ ‘She is my employee, and  _ just _ my employee. She is not, nor will she ever be, my friend,’ _ she reminded herself. Instead, she simply said, “Quite,” and went back to her paperwork.

 

    Ruby’s smile fell a bit at Weiss’s clipped response.  _ ‘Damnit, woman, why so cold?’ _ the redhead thought to herself, before shaking her head, and going back to her work. She eyed the stack of papers she had already reviewed and moved into Weiss’s inbox queue and decided she had built more than enough of a buffer for herself to go ahead and pen down her boss’s schedule for the day.

 

    Ruby glanced at her watch as well as the list of tasks she and Weiss needed to complete by the end of the day. It was extensive, but nothing Ruby couldn’t handle. Silently, Ruby thanked all the leadership classes Ozpin made her take so many years ago. She looked at the array of document deadlines and meetings like she would a battlefield, and began to order them into time slots like she would any of her subordinates. It wasn’t  _ too _ dissimilar.

 

    The muscles in her left shoulder cramped then, as if to remind her that she would never step foot on that battlefield again, and a hiss rose up in the back of her throat. She rolled the shoulder and massaged the scarred flesh, pushing her past out of her mind. 

 

    She marked four o’clock as her time to meet with the other security personnel, and set aside an hour at one o’clock for lunch. She ordered the few meetings Weiss had that day into their own time slots and wrapped up the schedule. Settling down, Ruby got back to work, zoning in to her computer and letting her fingers fly across the keys.

 

**0000000000**

 

    Weiss couldn’t help but admit it, if only to herself: she was impressed. When she gave Ruby the job, she did it so she would only have to deal with one other person instead of two. She knew, or thought she knew, that the more lighthearted woman wasn’t truly qualified for such a lofty position in such a big company, so Weiss had made sure to not rely on the younger woman to actually effectively do her job. On this first day, at least initially, Weiss had made sure not to overload the woman. After all, she didn’t want to intimidate her new employee into quitting the position and damning Weiss to having  _ two _ employees invade her life.

 

    She doubted she would be so lucky twice.

 

    Knowing, or thinking that she knew, that Ruby didn’t really have the capability to keep up with her workload, Weiss had made sure that only a portion of the documents she had to deal with went through the Personal Assistant. After a while, papers that Ruby had reviewed began to trickle into her usual inbox, and Weiss’s eyebrows slowly rose up towards her hairline.

 

    Each report bearing Ruby’s mark appeared to have been thoroughly analyzed and annotated. Notes lined the margins of the papers (both the digital versions that scrolled across her computer screen and the paper documents that slid atop the stack on the corner of her desk) highlighting the important sections of the reports and labeling the topics of specific paragraphs.

 

    It helped that the redheaded woman seemed to think in a way that was stunningly similar to Weiss. With a few exceptions, Ruby seemed to mark everything that Weiss would’ve noted while reading through.

 

    They had been hard at work for a few hours now, and Weiss had been working on a mixture of documents that she was getting fresh from her sub-offices and documents that had gone through Ruby first, and Weiss noticed that she got through the documents that had gone through her PA notably faster than the others.

 

    So, yes, Weiss was impressed. Even more so since she knew that Ruby’s training in business was a secondary certification. The past few hours had little in the way of talking between the two of them, but Weiss felt like she should incentivize more of this kind of behavior. “I must admit,” she began, gaining her PA’s attention. Once those silver eyes met hers, she continued, “I’m a bit impressed at your performance so far.”

 

    Ruby quirked her head, a movement Weiss would usually attribute to a puppy, and asked, “What do you mean?”

 

     Weiss’s pen clicked into the little holder she had for it on her desk and minimized the screen of her computer for a second, the holographic-projected monitor collapsing into a small cube of light on her desk ready for her to tap and reactivate. “You mentioned that your degree in business was secondary to your education as a Huntress, yes? Well, for someone who has neither a major nor undergone any kind of extensive training, like I have, these papers are remarkably well processed.”

 

    A smile grew on Ruby’s face then, small and genuine. Something seemed to shudder inside of Weiss then. She was confused for a moment, before she realized that this was the first time in her memory that she had made anyone smile an honest smile. Internally, she scolded herself for  _ liking _ the idea that her praise pleased her assistant, but she couldn’t deny that she did like the feeling it gave her.

 

    This woman was like a virus, she concluded.

 

    Oh, wait, she was talking again.

 

    “Well, it helps that I did use the stuff I learned in Business as a huntress,” Ruby explained.

 

    That was intriguing. “Oh?” Weiss asked, sliding a document from her inbox to the forefront of her desk, skimming it and listening to the ex-huntress’s explanation.

 

    “I don’t know if I ever mentioned it before, but I was actually the leader of a team,” her smile changed a bit, the slightest bit of sadness slipping into her voice, “Me and my team were freelancers, more or less. You know what that means?”

 

    Weiss glanced up at the ex-huntress for a second before looking back to her paperwork. Her response was clipped, but polite, “I know what the word means, yes, but not when it comes to the huntsmen. Explain.” 

 

    Ruby waved a hand dismissively and said, “Ah, it doesn’t mean much, just that we weren’t part of any formal group. We were just a team who did odd jobs that were posted up on the Network.”

 

    Weiss nodded along, comprehending both Ruby’s description and the paper at on her desk, though the paper was marked ‘low priority’ by Ruby and Weiss had confirmed that it wasn’t too important, so she wasn’t overly worried about it’s contents. “The Network?” she asked.

 

    Ruby didn’t seem to mind that Weiss was multitasking. Most people would find that rude, but Ruby had never really had much of a social sense. “Ah, it’s just a thing that we would use. It’s kind of like a subdivision of the CCT network where we get missions and file after-action reports,” she explained further.

 

    Weiss frowned, not seeing the connection, “What does that have to do with your business training?”

 

    Ruby minimized her own screen then and began to really explain, “Being a huntress pays well enough, but it’s not a  _ lot _ , since a lot of the people we help don’t have much to pay us with. I, as the leader, did most of our budgeting stuff ‘cause I understood it, you know?”

 

    The Schnee’s eye twitched at the word “ ‘cause”, but she said nothing of it. Instead, she opted to allow the conversation to continue, “Go on.”

 

    Ruby tapped her holographic keyboard to bring the screen back up. She flipped it around to show Weiss the report that she had been working on, Weiss obliged her, and looked at the profit report from the SDC’s domestic product division. Ruby motioned at it and said, “This isn’t too different from an after-action report, just replace ‘Lien’ with either ‘ammunition’ or ‘Grimm’ depending on if its an expenditure or a profit.”

 

    “I must admit,” Weiss said, her eyebrows rising again, “that has got to be the most unique way I’ve ever heard someone describe a corporate document.”

 

    Ruby beamed.

 

    Weiss felt that  _ something _ in her shudder again, and she quickly changed the subject, “Yes, well,  we should probably get back to work.” She re-opened her computer and tucked the now sufficiently reviewed document into her ‘completed’ folder in her desk.

 

    Sensing that her boss didn’t want to talk anymore, Ruby said, “Yes ma’am,” and reset her computer screen. Soon, the room fell into silence again as the two women got back to work.

 

_ ‘What  _ was _ that?’ _ Weiss wondered. The  _ something _ in and of itself wasn’t unpleasant, but it was confusing as all hell.  _ ‘She’s not your friend,’ _ she reminded yourself,  _ ‘Do  _ **_not_ ** _ over-familiarize.’ _ Even if she succeeded in that, though, she still had no idea how or why that shuddering occurred. Once more, Weiss rationalized,  _ ‘She’s like a virus,’ _ and left it at that. Another emotional issue pushed to the wayside, and it left Weiss wishing she could research her own emotions, but sadly, that bit of science hadn't quite been worked out yet. Truly, she just didn’t know how to handle any of this.

 

    She cursed Winter for forcing this on her, though there was no real spite in it. Weiss only spent another moment dwelling on the confusing emotions before solving it the only way she knew how: she opened another document, and began to read.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think I’m going to end this here. I had planned to continue this chapter longer, but this is a neat little stopping place and gives me a good jumping off point for the next one. Another shorter chapter but what can you do? 
> 
> Maybe one day I’ll be able to post these chapters with any level of regularity, but until then, stay tuned!
> 
> Don’t forget to review either! If you want the next chapter, leaving a review is the only way you have to incentivise me to write, and people run on incentives. It’s the only way I have to improve, too!
> 
> (Also I really, really love to read them.)
> 
> Another thing, I marathoned the second half of this on the night of February 1st in honor of Monty Oum. I never got the chance to meet him, but he and his work has radically changed my life. I felt there was no better way that I could honor him than by creating something. I hope, wherever he is, he hears me when I say “Thank you”.
> 
> -Order


	10. 10: Hunger Pains

    Time ticked away, as it always has done and always will. Time had done a lot of things to Ruby Rose, both positive and negative. The relentless march of time had long ago taken her mother from her, and later had ended her career. Time had taken away her childhood, her innocence, and most of the things that she cherished.

 

    Time had also given her a great many things, too, though. Time had given her many scars she could be proud of, and one she could not. It had given her experience and intelligence and an understanding of the world that few others could boast. Time had preserved her optimism despite that, though. Time had given Ruby her sister and current closest friend, Yang, and kept her Father and Uncle in good health, though it  _ had _ taken from her two other members of her family, her mother and one other, one by death, and another by causes unknown.

 

     Time had given her a collection of weapons that would simultaneously make her younger self drool in mild arousal and most militias on Remnant blush. Time had given her a home that she loved more than life itself, and time had also taken it away. But time had picked her up afterwards, and held onto her until the wound healed, both physical and emotional, though the scars of both remained. Time had given her a job that pays incredibly well, even if it wasn’t the most exciting thing in the world. 

 

    Yes, time gave and time took away a great many things from Ruby.

 

    Currently, the time was about 12:45.

 

    Ruby signed her name on the document she had just annotated and got up to take it to Weiss’s desk. She slid the paper into her boss’s inbox silently, not wanting to disturb her more than necessary. Even so, the richest woman on Remnant still took just a moment to say, “Thank you,” before getting back to her business.

 

    A small smile came to Ruby’s face. Over the past few days they had known each other, Weiss had been giving off a lot of mixed signals. Sometimes she was almost friendly, like the other night at dinner, but then again, sometimes she could be colder than most anyone Ruby had met before. Even so, Ruby got the sense there there was a deeper layer to Weiss Schnee that she couldn’t see yet, so for now she was content with the little reminders that Weiss was indeed a human being who knew  _ something _ about common courtesy. 

 

    Ruby sat herself back down at her desk and looked at the schedule she had set up earlier. Later on in the afternoon she had that meeting with the building’s security team, and later still the both of them had a meeting with the Board of Directors to close out the day. 

 

    Just a moment later, Ruby’s watch chirped on her wrist loudly. Weiss, looked up from her work, brow scrunched in confusion. “What’s that?” she asked as Ruby pushed a button on the device to silence the noise.

 

    “Oh, whoops,” Ruby said, embarrassed, “Ah, I set that alarm so we wouldn’t go over time.” She then stood up from her desk with purpose and, supporting a subdued but happy grin, said, “That means it’s one o’clock, and it’s time for lunch!”

 

    Weiss was far from matching Ruby’s excitement at the prospect. “Lunch?” she asked rhetorically, unimpressed. She decided to humor the other woman though, blinking once, slowly, and waiting for further explanation.

 

    “Well, yeah,” Ruby said, only a little put off by Weiss’s cold front this time. Briefly, she entertained the idea that Weiss didn’t know what lunch  _ was _ , but that was too absurd for even Ruby to believe. Determined, Ruby explained, “Lunch is really important for a healthy diet. Everyone’s gotta eat lunch.”

 

    Weiss was silent for a moment. When she decided that Ruby was done, Weiss leaned back over her paperwork and continued to work. After a beat of silence where the only noise in the room was a quiet scratch of pen on paper, the CEO noticed that her assistant’s gaze had yet to leave her. Hoping to dissuade Ruby from pursuing this idea any further, Weiss simply said, “Not me,” and continued writing.

 

    Ruby stared at Weiss for a moment longer.  _ ‘Calvin did mention that she’ll skip meals before, I think,’ _ she remembered. Not wanting to drop the issue, she pressed on, “It’s my job to make sure you maintain your health, too, right?”

 

    At that, Weiss set down her pen, a flash of anger in her eyes. She started at Ruby with a glare that would’ve wilted a lesser woman like a flower before a blizzard. Not being a lesser woman, Ruby instead felt a cold thrill of  _ something _ flash through her system. It wasn’t fear, per say, but it was definitely  _ something _ .

 

    A part of the ex-huntress was suddenly curious as to what that glare could do to a normal person.

 

    “Miss Rose,” Weiss began, a cold kind of anger clear in her voice. It was unfamiliar to Ruby, as her previous encounters with anger were primarily from her sister. When Yang was angry, she was all fire and brimstone. Yang’s anger was a wild and burning thing. Weiss’s was different. The tone -the  _ cold _ \- in her voice as she said Ruby’s name was like a single shard of ice fractured to a razor’s edge. With a start, Ruby recognized what that  _ something _ was.

 

    It was that same little mixture of glee, fear, and knee-shaking anticipation that she usually felt when holding a particularly interesting weapon for the very first time.

 

_ ‘Shh, stay calm, Ruby. I don't want to get excited. At least, while those  _ weapons _ ,’ _ she was referring to Weiss’s eyes,  _ “are pointed at me.” _

 

    After a moment, Weiss continued, frost in her voice, “Do not overestimate your authority. Your  _ job _ is to do as I say first and foremost. This work is much too important for me to neglect for something as trivial a noontime snack.” Her voice softened a bit, but still held that same edge to it, if dulled somewhat, “If you wish to leave for lunch, you may, but I am staying right here.”

 

    Ruby held eye contact with her boss for a moment, schooling her face into something unreadable. After a moment, she nodded, forcing her tone to sound just a little more formal than she usually would, “Alright, ma’am, if you stay in this room there’s no security concerns. I’ll head out then.” She brushed her red-tipped hair out of her eyes and tucked a few strands behind her ear. It was longer than she liked it, reaching near her shoulders now.

 

    Satisfied, Weiss nodded, that off-center ponytail bobbing and catching Ruby’s eye. “That is fine,” Weiss said, plucking her pen back from her desk, “Be back within an hour, if you can.”

 

    Ruby nodded back, “Yes ma’am,” and walked to the door. It opened with a soft click, and Ruby stepped back into that hallway. 

 

    Deciding her own little reaction to Weiss’s anger was  _ not _ something she wanted to analyze right now, Ruby instead opted to focus on a more pressing concern. She recognized the behavior Weiss was showing. She was neglecting her own health for her work. What she had said -that her work was too important for her to stop- stuck a chord within Ruby. That was a behavior that Ruby was more than familiar with.

 

    A little pang of sadness went through her. Her old teammate was like that at times. She would obsess over the things that she thought were important, and it was all Ruby and Yang could do sometimes to get her mind back on track.

 

_ ‘Well, at least I have some experience with it,’ _ Ruby thought, forcing the melancholy memories from her mind as she made her way towards the elevator. Determination shone in her eyes as she formulated a plan.

 

    Whether Weiss liked it or not, enabling her here would only harm her in the long run. Ruby was no enabler.

 

_ ‘Well, not anymore, anyways’ _

 

    Ruby snorted in amusement as the doors slid closed and the elevator began its descent. Yes, there was a bit of sadness in  _ that _ memory as well, but she managed to focus on the good ones yet. 

 

    No, Ruby would not give ground here. If Weiss didn’t want to stop working, that was fine. She had a point, she  _ was _ doing important work, but Ruby wasn’t going to let her neglect her health for it.

 

    The doors slid open, and Ruby walked out into the lobby of the SDC building, a purpose in her step.  _ ‘If she won’t let me bring her to lunch, then I’ll just bring lunch to her.’ _

 

**0000000000**

 

     Weiss was focused almost entirely on the work that sat on her desk. Her computer was minimized again as she sat in her  _ very _ expensive chair and scanned through one of the more important documents she had today. It was a packet of paper large enough to qualify as a novella and bore the company’s tax records for last quarter. There was small scandel earlier in the year where one of her accountants had been embezzling money, so she was taking special care to ensure all these documents were in order.

 

    She was so focused on her work that she almost didn’t notice the door to her office open. She briefly considered being concerned about the door opening, but only one other person in the building could open that door other than her. With a soft  _ click _ it slid open, and Weiss’s suspicions were confirmed as the door’s AI said, “Welcome back, Miss Rose.”

 

    “Hello,” Weiss said distractedly, not glancing up from her paper. It briefly occurred to her that maybe she was being a little discourteous, but she deemed that thought unimportant and pushed it out of her mind. Her pen skimmed over the paper silently as she read the document, letting it hold her full attention.

 

    That was, until something large and flat  _ whump’ _ ed onto her desk. Her eyes snapped up immediately to the package. I was a white box that was wide and almost flat, being a little bit longer than a foot in length and width, but only about an inch and a half tall. On top of it sat a small package of paper plates and a box of napkins.

 

    Weiss stared at the items for a moment before looking up at her assistant, a rather cross look in her eye. It wasn’t the glare that she had fixed Ruby with earlier, but it certainly wasn’t happy. “Miss Rose, what exactly do you think you are doing?”

 

    Weiss didn’t miss the hint of smugness showing both on Ruby’s face and in her voice when she simply replied, “Lunch.” Weiss’s eyes did not waver nor did they shift away from Ruby’s gaze, silently demanding further explanation. After a minute, Ruby relented, her smug expression falling just slightly, “I won’t try to force you to eat something, but I figured that I’d at least grab enough for the both of us, so if you change your mind or want to eat while you work, it’ll be here. Plus,” she motioned one hand at her box, “Pizza is always a winner!”

 

    Weiss didn’t match her enthusiasm. She glanced back down at the box. For the first time, she noticed the smell wafting off of it. It was...interesting. Weiss couldn’t really tell if it was good, but it definitely wasn’t bad. She couldn’t really describe the scent as anything other than kind of greasy. After a minute, she shook her head, “No, if you wish to eat, go ahead, but don’t...don’t...what exactly do you think you’re doing?”

 

     Ruby glanced up from what she was doing, box lid halfway raised. “Oh, I was just getting a slice, why?” Her silver eyes were the picture of innocence, but Weiss didn’t believe them one bit.

 

    Weiss looked at her suspiciously for a moment longer. A moment  _ too _ long, it seemed, as Ruby shrugged and flipped the top the rest of the way off, exposing the food she had brought back to the open air. It was an amalgamation of cheese and meat along a large disk of bread and tomato sauce. The first this Weiss noticed about the thing as Ruby reached to pull a slice of it from the box was the  _ grease _ . It seemed to be almost dripping with it, and, to Weiss, it made the -alleged- food look as if it was sweating.

 

    Her nose wrinkled,  _ very _ important tax report on her desk momentarily forgotten. “You’re going to  _ eat _ that?” she asked incredulously. Ruby grabbed a slice, and Weiss’s eyes caught on the thin strands of cheese that stretched between Ruby’s slice and the rest of the pizza. In her mind, she could only compare the thick, gooey cheese to some kind of slime. To her mind, it was something dirty, uncouth, and improper. She was, to put it simply, disgusted.

 

    Or so she told herself, as, seemingly in spite of what her mind had just decided, her mouth began to water at the sight.

 

    Ruby shrugged and said, “Yes ma’am, I am,” before taking a bite of her slice with a small hum. It did not slip by Weiss how many rules of etiquette Ruby was breaking right now, standing up in the middle of her office and eating a slice of pizza  _ without a plate _ and with her bare hands, all while wearing a  _ very  _ expensive suit.

 

_ ‘Oum, does she even know how expensive bulletproof coats are?!’ _

 

    Even so, Weiss felt her stomach rumble. Briefly, she told herself that that was it roiling in disgust at the gooey pile of grease her bodyguard had just put in her mouth, but even she herself could not believe that lie for long though, soon conceding (if only to herself) that at the very least some primal part of herself did indeed want some of the pizza. Bullheaded as she was, though, Weiss remained resolute, “Miss Rose, you are lucky enough that I am allowing you to eat food in my office. Would you please, at the  _ very least, _ eat it at your desk?”

 

    Once more, Ruby shrugged and said, “Alright, suit yourself,” and  _ finally  _ put her lunch on one of the many paper plates she had returned with. Weiss felt herself grow angry at Ruby’s flippant attitude, and briefly considered ordering her  _ take her damn food elsewhere _ , but then an image flashed through her mind.

 

    It was of the previous owner of this very office. Jacques Schnee was famously intimidating when it came to meeting someone. When one was called into  _ his _ office, it meant their life was about to change, for better or worse. He kept the space almost unsettlingly clean, and anyone who left even a  _ speck _ of dust in his office may as well as signed their own Pink Slip. This fear was, of course, intentional on Jacques’ part. He used it, like anything else, as a weapon in order to maintain absolute control. Nothing entered this room without his say so, and it was him alone who decided in what state anything left it.

 

    With that in mind, Weiss glanced up at her bodyguard, who now sat at her own desk munching on a slice of cheap and greasy pizza in his same office while absentmindedly scanning her computer. Her anger seemed to simmer down, then, as she took a moment to appreciate just how delicious the irony of that was. 

 

    With that in mind, Weiss let it go. At least, for a minute.

 

    It was only when Weiss put it out of her mind and put her pen to her paper again that she noticed the smell. Ruby had left the box open now that she had moved it to her own desk, which allowed the smell to waft across the room. The greasy, cheesy mess that sat in the box let off a rich smell that seemed to fill the room not a moment later. It rolled across Weiss’s desk like a fog, and seemingly in spite of herself, her stomach grumbled silently.

 

    Briefly, Weiss glanced up at the pizza sitting on her PA’s desk. Ruby had her eyes shut as she chewed her bite of pizza. Weiss couldn’t help but notice how her face seemed to screw up in delight at however the food tasted.  _ ‘How uncouth,’ _ she thought, even as saliva began to pool in her mouth. Weiss shook her head once, hard, and focused back on the document she had laid out on her desk. That didn’t do much of anything about the smell, however.

 

    Weiss tried to focus, she really did, but no matter what she did, her mind seemed to keep dragging her back to the fact that a slimy, greasy,  _ delicious _ smelling mess was sitting in her office. She frowned at that through, before closing her eyes tightly and focusing on breathing.  _ ‘This tax form is so, so much more important. Focus, Weiss,’ _ she told herself, frustrated at her own behavior. Slowly, she could feel that hunger receding, being pushed back through sheer force of will alone.

 

    “Mmh.”

 

    At least, it  _ was _ receding until her oh-so-subtle personal assistant decided to let out a little groan of joy and utterly shatter Weiss’s fragile composure. Both of Weiss’s hands met the desk with considerable force, sending a single pen rolling off of the desk and onto the immaculate tile floor. Ruby looked up, startled, for just a moment. Then, even with a mouthful of pizza, Ruby couldn’t help but look a  _ little _ smug.

 

    Weiss stormed at Ruby’s desk, heels clicking on the tile, all while a constant stream of old Atlesian spilled from her lips, “ _ Du kleine rote Ratte, gib mir etwas zu essen und sei damit fertig. Du hast Glück ich feuere dich nicht!" _

 

    That subtle smugness slipped off of Ruby’s face as she swallowed her mouthful and was replaced by a wide-eyed look of confusion. “Eh... _ gesundheit _ ?”

 

    Weiss swiped a plate off of the desk and all but hissed, “It  _ means _ , just give me a damn slice of pizza.”

 

    Ruby grinned like a fool, cheerfully serving her boss a slice of the Valean treat and saying, “No problem, ma’am. All you had to do was ask.”

 

    Weiss dropped back into her seat, all pretence of formality replaced with a indignation at being coerced into eating this... _ trash.  _ “Don’t think I don't know what you’re doing, Miss Rose,” Weiss said, venom in her voice and giving Ruby an angry side-eye. Ruby’s only response was to look back at Weiss with wide, innocent eyes and take a slow bite of her own slice. Huffing, Weiss looked down to the triangular slice of food on her paper plate. She curled her lip.  _ ‘I am the single most wealthy woman on Remnant, and I am about to eat what amounts to a pile of grease on a  _ paper plate. _ No ceramic, no glass, paper. What is the world coming to.’ _ Her stomach still urged her to eat the pizza, though, so she really had no choice in the matter.

 

    Only, she froze.  _ ‘How do I...?’ _ Weiss thought for a moment. She hadn’t ever really eaten food like this before. Whenever they had something similar at the manor, she had always eaten it with fork and knife. Weiss hadn’t seen Ruby carrying any utensils when she had walked in. Weiss quickly unfolded a cheap, thin napkin across her lap before looking towards her assistant once more.

 

    She had no intention of asking for instructions, but instead to watch how Ruby ate closely enough that she could replicate the action. Her nose curled once again when Ruby, luckily enough, reached out to pluck another slice from the box. Weiss watched as Ruby held the slice by the crust and supported the tip of the slice all the way to her lips and simply bit into it.  _ ‘How...quaint,’ _ Weiss thought, ruffled.

 

    Weiss looked back down to her own and, after working up the courage to, reached down towards the greasy piece of junk food. She grabbed onto the bready line of crust at the top of the pizza, careful to keep her hands out of the rich red sauce. She lifted it up with her left hand, and was quick to grab onto the end of the slice with her other one once as the toppings began to slide off.

 

    Her stomach rolled just a bit as she felt the slimy feeling of grease on right hand, which held onto the tip of the pizza slice. Slowly, she brought the slice to her face, being careful to stay over her small paper plate lest some cheese spill onto her  _ incredibly  _ expensive desk. 

 

    Hesitantly, and completely oblivious to the silver eyes subtly watching her every move, Weiss took her first bite of what was she was sure would be an unpleasant and unhealthy meal. Simply to cure the ache in her gut, she told herself.

 

    Her first bite was, in the simplest terms, a paradigm shift.

 

    Even all her years of training could not stop her eyebrows betraying how pleasurable she found the sensation as the several flavours of the pizza exploded across her tongue. The bizarre combination of meat and cheese and vegetables filled her mouth with a taste that was unlike anything Weiss had tasted before. That’s not to say it was the  _ best _ thing she had ever tasted, but the sheer surprise of just how good this cheap junk food was was enough to almost make her purr.

 

    “What do you think?” Ruby asked, smug curiosity just noticeable below the surface.

 

    Weiss absolutely refused to let this joy show, however.  Schooling her face into a neutral expression, Weiss chewed and swallowed the bite. Quiety, she savoured the unexpectedly rich flavour before saying simply, “It is...adequate.” Hoping that was enough to get that woman off of her back. She looked so damn smug about it, though, so Weiss preemptively prepared a sharp string of words to deter any continued annoyance on Ruby’s part.

 

    Ruby once more subverted Weiss’s expectations, though, by saying simply, “Yes, it is, isn’t it?” before going back to her own slice. 

 

    Weiss blinked, rebuttal dying on her tongue as Ruby left her in peace. Unsure of what exactly she should do with that, Weiss simply huffed again and went back to her food. She did feel somewhat ashamed for enjoying such a trite food, but with Ruby unabashedly scarfing it down at her own desk, Weiss couldn’t really find it in herself to be upset. Even though Weiss had only known the ex-huntress for a few days now, Weiss didn’t peg her as a judgemental person. It wasn’t a feeling Weiss was used to, that freedom of action, but one she appreciated even as she took another bite of the delicious treat.

 

    Once she ate enough of the slice to hold it with one hand, Weiss shifted the crust into her right one. She plucked up her pen from the desk, and began to continue scanning the tax form as she ate. 

 

    The next few minutes were populated by only the sounds of eating, punctuated occasionally by the scratching of a pen. All too soon, however, Weiss finished off the slice of pizza she had snagged from Ruby. Strangely though, she was left feeling rather...unsatisfied. While she wasn’t particularly hungry anymore, the scent of the food from the box was still enticing enough to call to Weiss like a siren. She glanced up at the food, before shaking her head and looking back at her work.  _ ‘You don’t need any more, Weiss, you are not a glutton.’ _

 

    Of course, within two minutes, she was sitting back at her desk with a second slice of pizza on her plate.

 

    Ruby made sure to seem outwardly oblivious, but inwardly, she couldn’t help but feel remarkably pleased with herself.  _ ‘So she  _ is _ human, after all.’ _

 

    Weiss barely noticed as this cycle continued a few more times.

 

    Eventually, the silence of the room was broken by Ruby as she stood up from her chair. Weiss, swallowing the last bite of her current slice of pizza, looked up curiously. Ruby picked up the box and said, “I should probably thank you for the help. I only eat like two slices of this stuff, so it’s nice to actually finish one off, you know?”

 

    That took a moment to sink in. Once it had, no amount of training could stop her eyebrows from creeping up towards her hairline.  _ ‘How much did I eat?’ _ she thought, concerned when she couldn’t remember the answer. Thoughtlessly, one hand laid over the place where her belly met her ribcage, and she was struck with just how  _ full _ she felt. Surely she couldn’t have eaten more than two or three?

 

    Ruby, feigning obliviousness, said, “ I mean, these things come with like seven slices, which is really more than one person needs.” Weiss’s alarm was only compounded as Ruby effortlessly crushed the cardboard box small enough to fit in the small waste bin by the door, showing off the the box was, indeed, empty.

 

_ ‘Five?!’  _ Weiss thought in what felt like a near panic,  _ ‘How the hell did I manage to eat  _ five _ pieces?’ _ Weiss found herself at a loss. She couldn’t even imagine herself slipping to such a temptation, let alone allowing it to sweep her away like that. Even so, she couldn’t deny that the sensation of being so full was indeed rather pleasant. It certainly wasn’t a feeling she had ever really felt, as the portion sizes at the manor were rather small growing up, and any time there was more food available, her father closely monitored her and her siblings’ intake.

 

    She wiped off her face with the napkin she had in her lap, hoping desperately that she at least hadn’t smeared any of the tomato sauce on her face. When the napkin came away red, it was all she could do not to bury her head in her hands and groan aloud. 

 

    “Are you done with that?” Ruby asked, pulling Weiss from her thoughts. She was pointing at the paper plate that still sat on her desk. Weiss didn’t trust herself to speak, so she simply set her napkin on the plate and nodded. Before Weiss could go back to contemplate just how uncouth it was to stuff herself as she had, Ruby sighed happily, stretching upwards in the middle of the room after tossing the plate in the bin as well. She was facing Weiss and had her eyes closed. That messy red-tipped brown hair brushed Ruby’s jawline and shoulders as she cracked her neck. The suit jacket she wore over her red collared shirt was unbuttoned and flared outwards as her arms stretched above her neck. For a second, Weiss could see everything that Ruby’s carried with her. On her left hip, where her coattail would cover it, the hilt of a knife rose out from underneath her pants. Underneath her arms she wore a few leather straps that functioned as a holster for her gun. Weiss could see the red grip of  _ Rosebud _ sticking out from the section under Ruby’s left arm, along with that suppressor she had used earlier sitting in a separate slot underneath the gun. Under her right arm, she saw the golden shine of brass casings that made up the bullets that were visible in the magazines of ammunition she kept there.

 

    This was, of course, no surprise to Weiss that she noticed this. She had found herself becoming rather curious with Ruby’s arsenal the more she got to know her. Weiss had accepted this about herself, chalking it up to her former interest in becoming a Huntress. What was more surprising, however, is that Weiss’s eyes caught on the ex-huntress’s neck as her head arched up towards the ceiling. It was, objectively, nothing too special, but Weiss couldn’t help but observe closely as the muscles of her neck stretched upwards. It looked...lithe, in a way Weiss didn’t know what to think about. Briefly, ever so briefly, a part of her brain wondered what it would feel like under her teeth.

 

    Weiss blinked, time seeming to rush back into the room like a flood. It left her cheeks burning and that image fading into the aether just as fast as it had appeared. Before she could contemplate further, Ruby dropped her arms back to her sides and said, “Ah, I love pizza. It’s such a relaxing meal, you know?”

 

    Eager to take her mind anywhere other than the frankly obscene amount of food she had eaten or Ruby’s musculature, Weiss all but jumped at the chance to ask Ruby for elaboration. Metaphorically, of course. She made her best effort at maintaining an outward look of calm as she asked “What do you mean?”

 

    Ruby seemed to pause at that. Standing in the middle of the room, she almost seemed to be genuinely contemplating what she had meant. “Honestly, I’m not really sure,” she offered, before, “It’s that kind of food I guess. Warm and heavy, you know?”

 

    Weiss didn’t know, but she could definitely relate to the ‘heavy’ part. She felt like she weighed three pound more than she did this morning. “It would appear so, yes,” Weiss said, taking a cautionary look at the tax form in front of her to make sure that she hadn’t accidentally gotten any grease on it. Satisfied that the papers were clean, she set about finishing her review, hoping that it would take her mind off of the confusing emotions flitting about her head or the stuffed feeling in her belly.

 

    When no more conversation was forthcoming, Ruby turned and walked back over to her desk. She gathered up the remaining plates and napkins (both packages were practically full) and slid them into one of the drawers attached to her desk, fully planning on recreating this little lunchtime song and dance as often as possible. Maybe she was overstepping her bounds a bit, but she couldn’t help but notice that her boss, who was a rather small woman as it was, was bordering on an unhealthily low weight. It  _ was _ , Ruby reasoned, her job to keep Weiss safe, so making sure she ate proper food on a regular basis was probably a part of that.

 

    Even if it wasn’t Ruby couldn’t very well stand by and see the other woman starve herself. That just wasn’t who Ruby was.

 

    Once Ruby sat back in her seat, she got back to work. Even so, her mind wasn’t so keen to go back to spreadsheets and formal documents, and wandered back to the almost-frail woman sitting just a few feet from her. It was her job to make sure that Weiss Schnee was safe, but she could tell that there was a lot more to Weiss than she was letting Ruby see. Like her mind, her eyes wandered back over to Weiss, too.

 

    She was sitting tall in her chair, scanning through the packet on her desk. She looked, Ruby thought, a bit like a hollow ice sculpture. Proud, Firm, but with a strange kind of weakness hidden beneath the surface, as if just a little pressure in the wrong place could break her. Ruby was always a rather caring person, she had gotten that from her mom, and she was always a rather good judge of character. She hadn’t known Weiss for near long enough to be sure in this assumption, but Ruby thought she could see there that, like that hollow ice sculpture, Weiss now was so much less that she should be. It hurt Ruby to see, and it hurt that she didn’t know why.

 

    But, like that sculpture, Ruby could also see a kind of beauty to Weiss. She seemed almost regal there where she sat, and despite the weakness Ruby could see behind her facade, she could see a strength there, too. She remembered the anger that Weiss had shown so briefly earlier in the day, and the corner of her lips quirked. Yes, there was definitely strength in this woman.

 

    A part of Ruby wanted to find it. Ruby contemplated this for a few seconds more. Maybe she was moving too fast, and maybe she didn’t know enough about Weiss to really be able to make these observations, but given what she had gleaned from this cold woman over the past few days, she seemed like a puzzle. There was more to her, and Ruby could see  _ that _ clearly, if nothing else, and she couldn’t help but want to learn more.

 

    Briefly, Ruby remembered another girl. One who Ruby had also seen as a puzzle when they first met.  _ She _ had that same kind of hidden fragility as Weiss, and  _ she _ also had that same kind of strength. Maybe that is why Ruby felt such an urge to solve Weiss’s puzzle, and maybe that is why Ruby wanted to not only protect her as per her job, but to also do her level best to care for her.

 

    She had only ever really wanted to  _ care _ for one other person, a woman who was at one time as close to her heart as her own sister, if not closer. Maybe, just maybe, Weiss reminded Ruby just a bit of  _ her _ .

 

    The muscles on the left side of Ruby’s chest cramped, and she rolled her stiff left shoulder to alleviate the pain. It didn’t help.

 

    Ruby drug her eyes off of Weiss and her mind away from her puzzle and her past. 

 

    Opening up her computer, Ruby got back to work.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another chapter out way too damn late. Sorry, it’s my senior year, and there’s much to do. I’ll do my best to get this story out as quick as possible, because I can't wait to get to what I have planned. I may take a small break, however, to write a Tomb Raider oneshot that’s been bouncing around my head, but I don’t know. We’ll see.
> 
> Regardless, if you want more of this, don’t forget to review! It’s the best incentive you can offer!
> 
> I’ll start work on the next chapter as soon as possible, as I’m pretty sure Alisa will kill me if I fuck about for too long, haha.
> 
> -Order


	11. 11: Commander Herder

    Clara Herder was an interesting woman.

 

    It was shortly after four o’clock when Ruby stepped out of the elevator. The Security Wing made up an entire floor of the SDC Building. It was situated about halfway up the tower and was used as the central hub for anything and everything related to security in both the building itself and SDC Business within Atlas City borders. Ruby walked in, following just slightly behind and to the side of Weiss, and scanned the room. It was bustling with men and women in uniforms ranging from pseudo-police to pseudo-military all working at computers or monitoring cameras. Ruby had taken the time to read up on the specifics of the office (as the so-far mysterious Mrs. Herder had forwarded them to Ruby in a file labeled ‘Confidential: Level 4 Security Personnel Only THAT MEANS YOU, VEGA’. Real official, that). Those computers, she guessed, connected to the several other security posts scattered around the building and controlled both cameras and automated security forces.

 

    Ruby also noticed how everyone in the room seemed to stand just a little straighter as Weiss gilded past. That made Ruby grin. The two women continued through the room, eventually passing by a clear window of bulletproof glass. Just through it, Ruby could see four officers inside of the room standing at a firing line and practicing with a few of the SDC’s standard issue sidearms. Idly, Ruby wondered if she’d ever get the chance to use the little pistol range, too. They continued past it, and passed an opaque frosted glass door with the words “Armory” stamped in bold black letters on it. That piqued Ruby’s curiosity, but she pushed it out of her mind for now.

 

    For now.

 

    Finally, they were approaching their destination.

 

    This door was different than the previous few they had passed. Instead of the opaque glass from before, this one was an industrial looking steel door. It looked as if it had been taken out of an airship and transplanted onto the wall, all black steel and visible hydraulics. A brass plaque on the plain office wall next to the door labeled it as the “Central Planning Room”, but the white stencil-and-spray-paint title printed haphazardly on the door itself labeled the room the “War Room.” Ruby couldn’t help but snort a little laugh at that.

 

    Weiss, seeing what Ruby had been so amused by, explained, “Commander Herder is an...interesting woman.” She seemed a bit ruffled.

 

    Curious, Ruby asked, “She do this?” while motioning at the spray painted sign.

 

    The businesswoman crossed her arms and hummed a disapproving note before explaining vaguely, “She did much more than paint the door,” before stepping up to said door. This area, while not a s high-tech as Weiss’s door, was still a restricted area and, as such, had a hand scanner. When Weiss pressed her hand against the screen of it, the scanner flashed green and the door slid to the left into the wall with a hiss.

 

    The room was unique. As they stepped in, Ruby immediately noticed the change in atmosphere. The rest of the security wing was just like any other bustling office in the building: a white-and-blue motiff and workplace carpet. The War Room on the other hand was aesthetically similar to the door. The walls and the floor were all some iteration of dark grey steel with holographic computer terminals lining the walls giving off a orange glow which gave the room an oddly claustrophobic vibe. It all seemed strangely familiar to Ruby, but she couldn’t exactly put her finger on why.

 

    In the center of the room was a holographic projection table: a very wide, round, black steel table covered in an blue grid, which projected a small model of the Schnee Building five inches above its surface. Something about the table, though, seemed odd. Like it didn’t belong. Maybe it was the slight change in color between the table and the floor it belonged to, or the slight difference in aesthetic between it and the surrounding room. It didn’t have legs, but rather narrowed below the top and extended down onto the floor in a solid tube of metal only slightly thinner than the tabletop.

 

    Ruby only lingered on the odd holo-table for a second before latching onto the only other person in the room. Leaning up against the table was a woman Ruby had never seen before. She had crimson red hair that brushed the her cheekbones on the side and gradually got longer towards the back of her head, just a bit unkempt. The very next thing Ruby noticed, she was only slightly ashamed to say, was that the woman was gorgeous, unexpectedly so. Freckles very lightly dotted her face and highlighted her full lips and small nose. Her eyes were green, fierce and alert when they snapped to track the two newcomers. Ruby may have mistaken her for a fashion model or something if not for the scars that outnumbered and out-sized her freckles. There was one that split the left corner of her lip, and another that cut her right eyebrow in half. A burn scar sat heavily on her right cheek and that ear was missing an earlobe. A long, crescent-shaped scar curved around her left eyebrow and appeared surgical in nature. Another, more startling scar cut a wicked curve the slid along her throat, rough and ragged. Whatever had caused that should have killed her.  _ ‘She’s built like a tank,’ _ Ruby thought.

 

    She met Ruby’s eyes for a second, before seemed to almost look into Ruby, scanning her from boot to crown. Not checking her out, but gauging her, like she would an adversary. Seemingly satisfied with what she saw, a smirk graced her lips that hinted at intelligence and just a bit of mischief. She wore one of the long-sleeved blue security uniform shirts with the sleeves rolled up to her elbows and the top button undone. Out-of-uniform black cargo pants tucked into a pair of combat boots showed that she wasn’t such a stickler for uniform, seemingly in spite of her lofty position as head of the Schnee Dust Company security.

 

    The woman pushed up off of the holotable to her full height and walked forward to meet Ruby and Weiss halfway. The next thing Ruby noticed was that she was  _ tall _ . She stood a good few inches above Ruby, and she guessed that the woman was at least six foot two inches tall. She extended her right hand, and Ruby met it with a handshake. Ruby noted, with just a  _ touch _ of annoyance that definitely wasn’t petty at all, that the woman had to lean forward just a bit to adequately shake her hand. She gave a hard shake, her smirk growing to a grin, and introduced herself, “Commander Clara Herder, head of security here at this fine establishment.”

 

_ ‘So we’re doing rank? Alright, I see how it is.’ _ Ruby gave a small, polite smile, “Huntress Ruby Rose, personal bodyguard to Weiss Schnee.” Her grip was steel. Literally. Her right arm all the way up to where Ruby lost sight of it in Herder’s sleeve was a matte black combat-grade prosthetic. 

 

    Herder’s grin once more turned sly as she released Ruby’s hand and turned to their boss. “Oh, I like this one, ma’am,” she commented, before turning around and began to walk back towards the holotable. She raised both her arms up towards the whole room as if making some grand announcement and declared, “Well, Huntress, welcome to the War Room! I’ll show you around.” Ruby noticed that her prosthetic arm had a long red stripe with a white border painted along it from shoulder to wrist, a design which Ruby found curious.

 

    Ruby met Weiss’s eyes and raised an eyebrow. Weiss simply shook her head and said purposefully loud enough for the soldier on the other side of the room to hear, “The Commander can be a rather eccentric woman, but, sadly,” she waved her arm dismissively towards Herder, emphasising the ‘sadly’, “she can do her job better than anyone else on Remnant. No one is more suited to manage the company’s security than her.”

 

    Across the room, Commander Herder shouted brashly, “You’re damn right!”

 

    “Yes, well,” Weiss continued and Ruby detected just a hint of exasperation in her voice, “I have to begin preparations for the meeting this afternoon, so I will leave you two to your work. If you need anything, you can contact me with your scroll.” She paused a moment before saying, “Notify me when the briefing is done with, or if the Commander sets something else on fire.”

 

    Ruby nodded respectfully, suppressing a chuckle for the sake of professionality, “Yes ma’am.”

 

    Weiss seemed to like that. She threw one more critical look at her head of security, though it had no real fire, before turning around and stepping out of the room. The door hissed closed behind her, hiding the long, off-center ponytail from Ruby’s view. Ruby found herself staring at the door after her boss for a moment, the way Weiss seemed to wear power like a garment lingering in her mind. A moment too long, it seemed, as suddenly Commander Herder was by her side and saying, “She  _ is _ a remarkable woman, isn't she?”

 

    The hair on the back of Ruby’s neck bristled and she more or less whipped her head back towards the much-more-red-headed-redhead. “What exactly do you mean by that?”

 

    Clara Herder shrugged nonchalantly, her arms relaxed and crossed over her chest. She put her weight on her back leg and her body language was the absolute epitome of relaxedness. “Oh, nothing,” she began, her tone of voice implying that it definitely  _ wasn't _ nothing, “Just that she's a very beautiful lady with a very interesting personality if you can dig deep enough to find it.”

 

    Ruby forced herself to close her mouth, which had fallen open at Herder’s unexpected appraisal of their boss. “Um, do you...?” She trailed off. She wasn’t entirely sure what she had meant to ask, or why she had been asking it.

 

    “What? Fancy her?” Herder asked, looking at Ruby like she had grown a third ear. She gave a light, amused chuckle, “While I appreciate the sentiment, she’s nearly fifteen years younger than me.” That came a surprise to Ruby. Maybe it was the scars or prosthetics that masked her actual age, but Ruby didn’t peg Herder as a day above thirty. Ruby opened her mouth, probably to say something unintentionally rude, but luckily Herder cut her off. “Plus,” she said, “She’s not really my type. I prefer married women.”

 

    Suddenly, Ruby was back in a classroom.

 

**0000000000**

 

_     A loud  _ whack _ rang out across the room, silencing the students in an instant. After three years of attendance at Beacon Academy, every single student in the lecture hall knew exactly what sound Glynda Goodwitch’s favourite riding crop made when it whipped across the polished wood of a desk. The room was a silent as a crypt as the blonde icon of fear itself managed to fill the it with her presence. She gazed over the rows and rows of students, green eyes passing critically over every single Huntsman-In-Training. _

 

_     Even though she had been given this treatment many times before, Ruby couldn’t help but shudder in her seat when Goodwitch’s eyes came and lingered on her for just a second longer than on anyone else. Idly, Ruby’s dominant left hand began to fiddle with her pencil on the desk, while her right began to tug at the hem of her uniform skirt nervously. After just a moment, a warm hand touched hers, and she glanced over to the right. Ruby’s silver eyes met comforting gold ones, and she stopped her fiddling to instead grasp the offered hand. _

 

_     Goodwitch, at the front of the wide auditorium, cleared her throat. Beacon had a way of pounding certain things into a person, making them less conscious motion and more instinct. Countless combat courses had taught every student what to do when you hear a blade swinging through the air or the telltale thrum of a red-dust based explosive about to detonate. Ruby knew personally that she would often find herself dodging or parrying without even realizing it. Blake had once explained to her that Beacon did that intentionally. As a school, they tried to make certain responses, both emotional and physical, instinct in their fighters. Emotional and psychological reflex triggered by specific stimuli. Blake had called it brainwashing. Ruby had called it conditioning. _

 

_      Yang, ever so eloquent, had called it ‘bullshit’. _

 

_     This was one such reaction, as the sound of Goodwitch clearing her throat alone was enough to make every student’s head snap forward and sit up straight in their chairs. With a single breath, Goodwitch had the whole auditorium’s full and undivided attention. A glance to her right, past her teammate, proved that even  _ Yang _ was practically at attention in her seat, back as rigid as a private before a general. _

 

_     ‘That’s kinda what she is,’ Ruby thought, but instead of reflecting on the not-quite-military structure of Beacon’s hierarchy (she had taken a course her Sophomore year on the makeup of different militaries and huntsman guilds around Remnant), Ruby refocused on the teacher at the front. _

 

_     The whole auditorium was on edge. Today was the first day of a new course, only two weeks into the first semester of Ruby’s Team’s Junior Year. While it was pretty normal to be nervous on the first day of a new class, this specific one was unique. The auditorium was only about a quarter full, which was doubly odd because this was a required class, but that was not the cause of this unease. _

 

_     See, a few days before the start of the year, once everyone had moved back into their dorms, a small number of teams had received a letter stating that one of their chosen electives had been cancelled and replaced by a required class filled with a carefully selected group of students. The class was called simply ‘Functional World Studies’, an oddly vague name for sure. Doubly odd was that the academy was  _ very  _ tight lipped as to what the class was actually about, and it wasn’t listed on any curriculum. _

 

_     What ‘Functional World Studies’ was all about, no one knew. It was a kind of mystery among the students who were selected to participate, and a mystery at Beacon also meant a potential danger, as this was the place that threw teenagers off of cliffs just to see if they could survive. Theories popped up amongst the students as to what the course was actually about, ranging from ‘just another course’ to an inter-team tournament to the death. Nothing seemed to fit, though, so the mystery continued to sit heavy on the minds of the unlucky few who had received letters. Everyone in the auditorium was eager and terrified as class began. _

 

_    Finally, Goodwitch spoke. “Students,” she began, tone anything but welcoming, “Welcome to Functional World Studies. I will not be teaching this class.” A murmur spread out over the assembled teams, which was swiftly silenced by Goodwitch’s riding crop, which slapped onto a desk and demanded silence without words. Once a hush fell again Goodwitch continued, “This class will be taught by Professor Ozpin himself. I trust you will behave yourselves.” The students began to murmur again, louder and more worried this time. _

 

_     “Holy Shit,” Yang whispered, and Ruby agreed. Ozpin was the  _ Headmaster _. He didn’t teach classes! Plus, Ruby had come to learn that anything involving the headmaster was bad business. She had managed to hone her threat detection skills over the past few years of training, and suddenly red flags were going off left and right. Under the table, Ruby squeezed the hand in hers. Blake, who sat between Yang and Ruby, squeezed back. _

 

_     Ozpin himself strode into the room then, having heard his cue from Goodwitch, his cane tapping on the floor and his trademark mug ominously absent. He stood in front of the classroom and waited for the noise to die off. Once everyone was focused solely on the silver haired man at the front of the room, Ozpin began to speak. His voice, unlike Goodwitch’s, was soft, earnest, but still commanding. “Students,” he began much like his second-in-command had earlier, “What I am about to tell you cannot leave this room.” _

 

_     Everyone present seemed to hold their breath and sit forward in their chairs, waiting eagerly for Ozpin to continue past that ominous phrase. “So far in your attendance here at Beacon, you young men and women have faced many challenges, many threats from many different forms of the creatures of Grimm. This course, which you will be required to take for the duration of your next two years at Beacon, will teach you how to handle a different kind of threat.” _

 

_     He began to pace back and forth, his cane tapping against the floor every other step and his unoccupied arm folded across his back, hand balled into a fist. “This group of Teams has been heavily screened and processed by our staff here. You all possess certain characteristics that show you are capable of completing this course and the tasks it will put before you.” He stopped his pacing for a moment, glancing up at his assembled students. “This course and the trials you will face in it will require a minor change in arsenal for some of you. Special ammunition or weapon modifications may be required, and as such, these things are listed in the syllabus Glynda will now distribute.” _

 

_     Goodwitch dutifully waved her crop through the air, and sure enough a stack of papers began to raise off of the desk at the front of the auditorium and flutter across the room, a single page of paper labeled ‘Required Materials’ landing in front of each and every student. Ruby glanced through it, eyebrows rising at the odd collection of items. ‘What do I need a sidearm for? You can’t kill a Grimm with a forty-five...’ she wondered, only more alarm bells continuing to ring. _

 

_    Ozpin continued talking as his students read through their lists, “You will find in your career as Huntsmen and Huntresses that oftentimes threats come from unexpected and unpleasant places. This course will teach you how to recognise, manage, and, when necessary, eliminate these types of threats. You will learn how to see evil things when they exist in places you may not expect or may not like.” _

 

_    “What the hell? Blake, look at this,” Yang whispered, brows creasing, pointing at one of the items on the list underneath the ‘Shotgun Wielder’ section. _

 

_     “Throughout this course,” Ozpin continued, sounding almost sad, “I will teach you how to face an adversary that contains just as much, if not more, of a capacity for evil as any Creature of Grimm you’ve ever faced. This course and what it teaches is one of Beacon’s most closely guarded secrets, and one of a Huntsman or Huntress’s most vitaly important duties. Are there any questions?” He looked up to the crowd of thoroughly confused and very worried students. _

 

_     Something about what he had said made Ruby’s skin crawl. ‘Most important duties? If it’s so important, why keep it a secret? And why are there so few of us here? And why would Ozpin need to teach it personally? And why does he seem like he’s speaking at a funeral right now?’ the questions kept piling up in Ruby’s mind, but she couldn’t bring herself to ask any of them them, finding her mouth uncomfortably dry. _

 

_     Eventually, it was Yang that raised her hand. _

 

_     “Miss Xiao Long,” Ozpin acknowledged. _

 

_     “Hey, uh, Oz?” Yang began in the wonderfully professional  manner she was known for, “Some of the things on this list don’t make any sense,” continued, oblivious to Ozpin’s slowly darkening facade, “Like, this says I need to stock up on twelve-gauge buckshot, but buckshot won't kill any Grimm bigger than like a Beowolf. If we are gonna be learning how to fight some crazy new type of Grimm, why do I need buckshot if it won’t even punch through an Ursa’s hide?” _

 

_     Ozpin’s head drooped just a bit, and he leaned a little bit more heavily on his cane as he said gravely, “This course will teach you how to see and combat evil amongst a creature much more elusive than any Grimm. By the end of your time at Beacon and your time in this course, you will know evil when it is present, even when it is not contained inside of a Creature of Grimm.” _

 

_      “Well, sir,” Yang interjected, annoyed at the deflection of her question, “That doesn’t really tell me why I need buckshot. So, why do I need it to fight whatever Grimm this is?” _

 

_     What Ozpin said next would haunt Ruby for the rest of her life. _

 

_     Suddenly, Ozpin appeared much older as he sighed deeply, before saying, “Because, Miss Xiao Long, I will not be teaching you how to kill Grimm. I will be teaching you how to kill men.” _

 

**0000000000**

 

    Ruby made a noise somewhere between a cough and a gag. A righteous kind of anger rose up in her, more by reflex than choice. “And what the hell do you mean by that?” she growled. Two years learning underneath Ozpin had taught her to see evil in people, and this was no different. She was trained to see immorality in people and combat it. It was hammered into her bones just as firmly as any survival reflex. Muscle Memory.

 

    Briefly, Ruby noted that attacking her coworker over something like this would  _ probably _ get her fired, but it was instinctual how her hand twitched towards her pistol. She was taught not to let evil slip past her, and as much as she did want this job to work out, she still had her duty as a huntress.

 

    In the end, Ruby decided that her duty as a huntress and as a  _ person _ to combat evil overcame her newfound duty as an employee of the SDC. She was more than prepared to act on those instincts that had been pounded into her by her training at Beacon to fight what she knew was wrong. To Ruby, what the Commander was insinuating made her one of the worst kind of monsters, and Ruby knew violence would follow if what the woman next said wasn’t satisfactory.

 

    That cocky smile of Herder’s turned mischievous again, completely oblivious to the danger next to her, before she raised up her left hand from where it had been hidden under her crossed arm and faced the outside of her hand at the ex-huntress. The orange light that permeated the room glinted off of a thin silver wedding band that wrapped around Herder’s left ring finger, and she said, “Well, one married woman in particular, anyways.”

 

    The fury slid from Ruby’s shoulders only to be replaced by confusion, then realization. _‘She’s married,’_ Ruby thought, _‘She’s talking about her wife.’_ Heat spread across her cheeks, feeling no small amount of embarrassment for almost jumping the gun. _‘There’s no evil here,’_ she told herself until her instinct to attack faded into a dull roar. Once it was gone, her heart slowed down and her body returned to normal. There was a pause, and then she said dumbly, “Oh.”

 

    At that, the Commander actually laughed, and Ruby could feel the blood boiling in her cheeks. Once Herder  _ finally _ stopped, she wiped at her eyes and said, “Wow, yeah, that was great. Good to know your moral compass works, though.” She gave one more laugh before shaking her head and turning around. She waved her prosthetic forward and said, “Alright, Huntress, jokes aside, we should probably get this briefing underway.”

 

    She didn’t appreciate the joke, but Ruby couldn’t really find it in her to be too angry.  _ ‘It was just a joke,’ _ she told herself.

 

    Wordlessly, Ruby followed.

 

    Clara Herder was an interesting woman.

 

**0000000000**

 

“ _ What? _ ” Weiss hissed into her scroll, pressing it tightly up against her ear as if that would make the person on the other side’s statement make any more sense.

 

    “I said, Miss Schnee,” a the heavily accented voice of Friedrich K Wilhelm replied, “That the meeting this afternoon will be canceled.” He stated this as a fact, one that, as he was currently the second most powerful person in the Schnee Conglomerate as the top shareholder under Weiss, was true.

 

    Weiss could feel her shoulders slump, a show of emotion she would only allow in the solitude of her own office, and she said, “Mister Wilhelm, this meeting has been a week in the making, and vitally important to the future of the SDC’s operations in Menagerie. We can’t simply-”

 

    She was interrupted by the man on the other end of the line, “We can and we will postpone the meeting. I am held up in Mistral for the night and will not arrive on time.”

 

    Weiss gazed out of the window of her office over the afternoon light shining down on Atlas and said, “We could-” before Weiss Schnee was cut off once more.

 

    “That meeting will  _ not  _ be held without me, Miss Schnee,” he spat, voice hard and unyielding.

 

    Weiss bit the inside of her cheek. She wanted to retaliate, every single nerve of her body screamed at her to punish him for interrupting her, for having the audacity to tell her what to do with her own company. One hand balled into a fist at her side, and the other squeezed the scroll in her hand, the glass and metal not budging. After a moment, she just said, “Alright, the meeting will be held tomorrow,” and left it at that. She bit her cheek again, and she could taste copper.

 

    “Hm, indeed,” and the line went dead.

 

    The scroll clattered against the marble-white desk where it was tossed, and the once proud woman slumped into her seat, feeling defeated. This behavior on Wilhelm’s part was nothing new, and Weiss once more found herself wanting. He always pushed his own agenda over hers and constantly undermined her authority as head of the company, and she could do nothing about it. He hadn’t even given her the dignity of hanging up the line. She stared out over the Atlesian skyline once more as frigid winds battered silently against the impassive window. Her eyes lingered on the construction site that Ruby had pointed out earlier. Idly she wondered if a sniper’s bullet would really be a bad way to go.

 

_ ‘Worthless.’ _

 

    Tearing her eyes away, she could feel the cold seeping through her chest again. Her hands which were shaking in her lap. She closed her eyes and focused on the power that lied deep and dormant inside of her. She drew up her aura and forced it into her hands, focusing. Slowly, in the air above her palms, a single small blue Schnee Crest bagan to form in thin air. It flickered for a moment or two, never  _ quite _ solidifying and becoming solid. She grit her teeth against the sweat beading at her forehead and the chasm opening in her chest. The damn thing was no wider than a tea plate and frail as a sheet of ice, but her heart pounded at the effort it took to maintain.

 

    She just needed to be  _ strong. _ She knew it, she knew that if she was just strong she could stand up to Wilhelm and take the reigns of her company. She could impose her will on the world, as was her birthright. All she had to do was  _ ‘Be strong, damnit!’ _

 

__ Then maybe,  _ maybe _ she would stop feeling so damn worthless.

 

    But her hand were shook, and the glyph flickered. She couldn’t do it. She knew that every morning when she woke up and looked in the mirror. She couldn’t be strong. She opened her eyes and focused on the flickering glyph and the shuddering fingers that somehow were both hers and not at all. Her lips parted and she began to whisper a mantra, “I am a Schnee. I am a Schnee. I am a  _ Schnee. _ ” She said this as if there was power in the words. They were true after all.

 

    The Schnees commanded respect. No one crossed a Schnee, no one insulted a Schnee, and no one  _ interrupted _ a Schnee. And  _ she was a Schnee _ .

 

    But there was no surge of power, so strength born of indignation at having her authority undermined. There was no power in the words that Weiss could draw from, and the glyph flickered once more and then crumpled, leaving the trembling hands that were briefly hidden beneath it exposed to the light in all their weakness. The glyph died, in the end, as it always did when Weiss tried to draw one forth, and so to did Weiss’s resolve.

 

    There was nothing she could do about this, so she pivoted her chair around back to face her desk, and began to work, hoping desperately the feeling of pen scratching on paper would still the shaking of her hands.

 

    There was no power in her work, either, and her hands shook.

 

_ ‘Worthless.’ _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think that's a good place to stop for now. I intended for this chapter to go on for longer, but it’s been forever since the last update and this is as far as I’ve gotten since then. I want to thank you all for being so endlessly patient on my slow ass. Life’s been hectic, blah blah blah, you guys know the drill. I have places I need this story to go, and it’s slow going.
> 
> Come hell or high water, if it takes me nine fucking years to write this story, it’ll be done, damnit.!
> 
> I wish this was longer for y’all, but it’s all I’ve got. I’ll try and get the next update out quicker, but no promises.
> 
> Additionally, I plan to make some changes to the previous chapters. Read back through them and correct some dumb mistakes and fix some writing style errors. I doubt I’ll change anything story-wise, but if I do, I’ll be sure to inform you all with another A/N.
> 
> Don’t forget to review! That’s the only form of payment I get from this, so keep it flowing for me. I set up a tumblr, also, and won’t be posting updates to iFunny for much longer. If you want to see how my writing is going or see the mounds of art I repost, you can follow me at rwby-order dot tumblr dot com!
> 
> -Order


	12. 12: A Night of Memories, Spent Alone

    After that little hiccup, the briefing was largely uneventful. Thankfully, Herder seemed to be all business when it came to work and, while her personality did shine through at certain points, Ruby managed to learn enough about the SDC’s security systems that she felt she could do her job with efficiency.

 

    Eventually, as the briefing was wrapping up, Weiss returned to the war room. Just as Ruby was testing the SDC-Security comm network she had linked her scroll to, the hydraulic door hissed open an in walked their CEO. She moved like a breeze into the room, and before either Ruby or Herder could speak, Weiss announced calmly, “The meeting this afternoon has been cancelled.”

 

    “Ah, hell,” Herder said, crossing her arms, “Freddy again? I bet it was Freddy.” Ruby’s brows furrowed, having no idea who ‘Freddy’ was and how he could get in the way of a board meeting.

 

    “Mister Wilhelm,” Weiss began smoothly, and that was when Ruby noticed it, “is in Mistral and will not be able to attend the meeting, and has requested it be postponed.” Weiss was...off, in a way Ruby couldn’t quite put her finger on. Her words were calm and her posture rigid, as per usual, but it just seemed wrong. She had a slightly stiff note to her voice, and she seemed almost  _ too _ calm.

 

    Herder threw her arms up over her head, frustrated, and said, “Of course! Fucking Freddy.”

 

    For an instant, Weiss’s facade cracked, and Ruby saw some kind of emotion flash across her face before Weiss buried it again and berated Herder calmly, “Language, Commander.”

 

    Herder looked like she was about to say something, but decided against it. Ruby took the opportunity to ask, “Uh, who are we talking about again?”

 

   ‘Off’ was a good word to describe Weiss’s mood. “Mr. Friedrich Wilhelm, ‘Freddy’ as Herder likes to call him, is the second largest shareholder of the company. He is the most powerful person in our company aside from myself,” Weiss explained with that same eerie-calm tone. Ruby considered mentioning it, but Weiss continued, “Is this briefing almost done?”

 

   “Yeah,” Herder replied, still huffy over the cancellation,”We were just wrapping up. You can take your huntress.”

 

    Weiss nodded. She spared Ruby a glance before turning on her heel and walking swiftly out of the room. Ruby stood in place for a moment before her brain caught up with her eyes and followed after her boss.

 

    Once the hydraulic door had closed once more and Herder was well and truly alone, she pulled her scroll from her pocket and made a call, “Hey, Liara, yeah we’re gonna have to cancel our reservation tomorrow night. Yeah, yeah I know. Ohh, yeap, fucking Freddy.”

 

**0000000000**

 

    The walk back to Weiss’s office was silent save for the mellow elevator music. Once the heavy door of Weiss’s personal office had closed behind them, Weiss immediately sat at her desk and went back to work. Weiss obviously had no intention of talking, so Ruby also slid into her seat behind her own desk and went back to her own work, annotating Weiss’s documents and fixing her schedule now that there was a hole where the meeting was.

 

    The rest of the day went by like this, somehow feeling like it was both creeping by and a snail’s pace and rushing by like a breeze. All the while Weiss had this tense, frustrated aura about her, and any attempt to start up a conversation by Ruby was met with short, polite responses that held that illusive ‘off-ness’ Ruby had noticed earlier. Eventually, she gave up.

 

    It wasn’t until six-thirty that evening when something unexpected happened. Weiss had long since zoned out, falling into that cold but serine headspace she could find only when working a day away where all of her mind was devoted to reading and comprehending her documents, a task made unexpectedly easier with Ruby’s red pen underlining, annotating, and summarizing. She signed her name at the bottom of this one, giving her permission to begin construction on some refining facility in Vacuo, and slid it into her outbox. Like clockwork, her left hand slid into her inbox for a new document, only for her fingers to brush along the bottom. Weiss furrowed her brow,  _ ‘It’s...empty?’ _

 

    Sure that some mistake had been made, Weiss flicked on her monitor on and checked her digital inbox as well, finding it equally empty. Confusion mounting, Weiss went as far to check the floor around her desk for fallen documents, finding none. For the first time since her call with Wilhelm, Weiss forgot entirely about keeping up a front. She looked up at Ruby, who was sitting at her own desk with her hands folded, looking at Weiss expectantly with those wide, silver eyes. “Why is my inbox empty?” Weiss asked.

 

    Ruby seemed surprised by the question, but responded nonetheless with, “Well, that all we were given for the day. Does that mean we’re done?”

 

    “That's preposterous,” Weiss said immediately. She had to review most of the documents that the building produced or recieved. The office itself closed at five-thirty, but Weiss usually had to stay for hours after most of the employees had left. Finishing a day’s work only an hour late was almost unprecedented.

 

    Ruby shrugged and explained, “Well, we’ve been keeping pace pretty well. I filtered all the junk that doesn’t need your signature out and processed that myself so all you had to do on those was check my work. Is this sooner than normal?” She crooked her head a bit to the left when she asked, genuinely curious as to how much she managed to expedite her boss’s day. She had a hunch that her annotations had helped much more than Weiss expected, and quietly thanked Beacon’s business school for sticking with her all these years.

 

    “Much sooner,” Weiss began, before correcting herself, “Much too soon. There must have been a mistake.” On quick days Weiss wasn’t out of the office until eight-o’clock, and she wasn't willing to believe that her assistant was the key to shaving hours off of her schedule.

 

    In the end they would sit in Weiss’s office for several minutes in near silence. All the while Weiss frowned, certain that there must have been  _ some _ mistake somewhere, that some intern must’ve fumbled a box of documents or  _ something _ and was rushing to bring them up late. It was the only explanation Weiss was willing to accept. After around five minutes Ruby realized just how stubborn her boss could be, and resigned herself to flicking through the building’s security feeds as she waited. Most everyone had gone home by this point in the day, and there was only so much staring at empty offices Ruby could take. All the while, Weiss sat rigid in her chair with her hands folded atop her desk staring a hole into her door.

 

    Eventually, the silence was broken as Weiss sighed, a hand coming up to pinch the bridge of her nose as she thought,  _ ‘This day just won’t give me a break,’ _ and stood. The movement immediately grabbed the attention of her bored aide. “Today must’ve been a slow day,” she qualified.

 

    Ruby stood as well and just barely suppressed a smartass comment. She was just grateful to get the chance to do anything other than idly stalk a custodian on the cameras as he did the rounds on the ninth floor. Instead, she just gathered her things and followed her boss out of the office with a growing smile.

 

    Her first day. A good day. It was not without hiccups, for sure. From startling Weiss earlier that morning with the window, to almost losing herself on Herder, to having to deal with Weiss’s withdrawn behavior after their meeting was canceled, she certainly had her work cut out for her. That was fine by Ruby, though. She appreciated the challenge if nothing else and, even if her boss was a bit on the prickly side, she looked forward to trying to whittle Weiss down into something resembling a friend.

 

    The SDC would not be an easy job for Ruby, she was under no delusions of that. The office work was difficult and Weiss had to correct Ruby’s mistakes more than once, and Ruby had yet to even test her skills controlling Weiss’s security, but still, she was optimistic about her future here. As the elevator slipped silently down the building, Ruby found herself smiling. Yeah, she was optimistic.

 

    Staring forward in the elevator, Weiss continued to frown lightly.

 

**0000000000**

 

    The voices came at night.

 

    Once they arrived home, courtesy of a chauffeur in a limousine, Ruby fixed a quick dinner for the two of them like she had the previous night. Weiss continued to seem withdrawn, as if her mind was always somewhere else. A bit disappointed she couldn’t continue her mini-cooking lesson from the night before but unwilling to press the issue, Ruby finished cooking and they sat down for a not unpleasant but not exactly comfortable meal. Weiss ate quickly, taking her leave within a few minutes of sitting down and leaving Ruby alone in the wide open dining hall by herself. 

 

    They came in the dark.

 

    Ruby wasn’t too terribly bothered by being left alone though, and quickly finished her own meal and depotisted her dishes in the sink, taking note of the fact that someone had come through and cleaned the dishes from that morning while they were at work. She did recall Weiss mentioning that she had hired a cleaning service to maintain the mansion. 

 

    They came when Ruby was alone.

 

    Ruby walked back to her bedroom, noticing in passing that the light in Weiss’s room was on. She briefly considered knocking to say goodnight, but decided against it when she remembered how sensitive Weiss was when it came to her bedroom. She sighed, and moved into her own bedroom. She flopped onto her bed and stared up at the ceiling, an odd feeling of melancholy washing over her. She didn’t feel like moving from her position spread-eagle on the bed, but she knew well that sitting in silence would only make the feeling worse. Heaving a sigh, she dragged herself up and into the shower. Once she was clean and her teeth were brushed, she slipped into a tank top and a pair of underwear, before grabbing some things from her workbench. She sat cross-legged on the bed with her pistol and a small case in front of her. 

 

    Lifting the unloaded 1911 with her uninjured arm, she set about taking it apart with quick, practiced movements. She pressed the recoil spring plug down into the gun and rotated the bushing to the right, being careful not to let the recoil spring fly across the room. Then, the slide racked back and came loose, and she began laying out parts, ticking them off in her head as she did so,  _ ‘Slide, recoil spring, barrel, bushing…’  _ Working on muscle memory, she snapped the case open and removed a brush, cleaning out the black residue her suppressor had kicked back into the gun earlier. Oil slipped exactly where it needed to go, and the gun began to fold back together. It was so simple to Ruby, who could still close her eyes and see the process of disassembly and maintenance she had used on a much more complex weapon. Soon enough, the ritual was completed, and the gun was back in one piece. She racked the slide a few times, checking the function of her weapon, before clicking the safety and setting the gun and cleaning case on her nightstand. Then, she turned out her lights and crawled under the covers for the night.

 

    That’s when the voices came.

 

    Ruby wasn’t surprised. Whenever her temper flared like it did earlier that day, the voices always came. They came, unbidden, to the front of her mind.  _ ‘What do you want?’ _ a voice asked, one she didn’t recognize but also didn’t find unfamiliar. It may have been her own voice, or someone else’s. Another voice responded,  _ ‘I want you dead.’ _ This voice, too, was neither male nor female, both hers and not. It was simply a voice, and it made Ruby’s heart pound in her chest.

 

_ ‘I am war,’ _ another voice spoke. Though her heart rate accelerated, Ruby was calm. This was normal, and had been happening for years. Ever since she was conscripted into that class, Functional World Studies, the voices came.  _ ‘You are mine,’ _ the a voice said, followed by,  _ ‘I am death,’  _ and again,  _ ‘I am dead.’ _

 

    The voices never made much sense, but each one resonated a chord deep inside of Ruby, an emotional chord she was not born with, but instead had been placed inside of her. A hand balled into a fist by her side, and she tried to fall asleep. The voices came again,  _ ‘Spill your blood.’ _ The voices were not angry, nor did they even begin to overwhelm Ruby. They never had. Whenever they came, they were simply there, like a well trodden path in her brain. They were never angry, nor where they forceful. Just that oddly alien yet familiar calm of her own mind when they came or when she had to fight. She thought of Ozpin, and the grim look on his face when he taught his huntsmen about the evils of their world. 

 

    Then, the voice changed. Now, it was definitely her voice, a memory ringing through her mind,  _ ‘Open fire,’ _ barely a whisper on the wind. Her eyes opened in the darkness.  _ ‘Too young,’ _ the voices returned,  _ ‘much too young.’ _ She reached up and ground the heels of her palms into her eyes, wishing she could just sleep. A phantom sensation against her shoulder, the buck of a heavy rifle. In the darkness, alone and in silence, Ruby remembered the Emerald Forest, a man running away, unarmed. He was going to escape.  _ He was going to get away. _ The memory of a voice, wise and grim, spoke in her earpiece,  _ “This is your job, Miss Rose. This is justice.” _

 

    The memory of hatred burned her brain even as her body was calm. She remembered the convict as he ran. She remembered biting her cheek so hard it bled. She remembered the sweat on her palms and the smell of the grass and dirt. She remembered the taste of bile in her throat as she did what she was told to do.  _ ‘Anti-Materiel,’ _ the voices muttered when she remembered the body.  _ ‘Eighteen,’ _ they said.

 

_ ‘Conditioned,’ _ a voice said.

_ ‘Brainwashed,’  _ another countered.

_ ‘Bullshit,’  _ yet another concluded.

 

    Ruby’s arms flopped by her sides.  _ ‘I will fight,’  _  the voices said,  _ ‘I will survive. I will move forward.’  _ The smiled bitterly, and wondered how she had become like this. She remembered Goodwitch’s crop, she remembers sparring until her arms sagged, running until her feet bled. She remembered training, hunting, fighting. She remembered Beacon, and she remembered everything after. She remembered laughing until breath left her, and crying until she collapsed. She  _ remembered _ . 

 

    But still, she was calm. This was not the first time this had happened. This was normal. Ruby was used to this. She sighed, and let the voices ring in her ears like they had many times before. Not for the first time, she wondered what Beacon had done to her.

 

    Eventually, the voices faded, as they always did. Ruby let her eyes close, and sleep came with relative ease. The memories only hurt when they were about her team. These memories were of a different caliber, and Ruby was thankful. And so, her mind and heart at ease, she slept.

 

_ ‘I’m fine.’ _

 

**000000000**

 

    In her dream, Ruby saw a white field of snow. The sky was black and the moon shone down on a forest of dead trees. The moonlight shined on the snow that lie heavy on the ground in stark contrast to the almost black wood of the trees. In the clearing that held the field, Ruby saw a woman. A woman with white hair that hung from her head and almost equally white skin that seemed to ensnare the very moonlight itself. 

 

**000000000**

 

    Weiss stood in the center of her room, hair freshly cleaned and dried. The light had been all but snuffed out, the room only illuminated by the shine of the moon through her window and the light of a small reading lamp on the nightstand by her bed. 

 

    Weiss was cold. In the privacy of her room, she was vulnerable and naked, letting the harsh bite of her home’s cold air soak into her bare skin. Today was a roller coaster for her. She successfully integrated Ruby into her life and job for better or worse. She had even come to realize that maybe being around the redhead wasn’t as bad as she had originally predicted. It wasn’t until the end of their day that Weiss’s mood turned truly sour, and Weiss was relieved to be alone.

 

    However, with that relief came a measure of pain. Her chest ached with the silence, so Weiss let the cold seep into her, hoping it would occupy her mind like it never did. She looked out her window, over the rose bushes in the garden below and at the fractured moon that hung high in the sky. How long had she been here, she wondered. How much time had she spent in this room, this house, looking out towards a horizon she would never touch.

 

    She would leave the house, of course. She had traveled all over the world of Remnant for business, but never had she felt the freedom she knew was supposed to accompany travelling. Once upon a time, she had dreamed of seeing the world as a huntress. Venturing forth as the leader of her own team and righting the image of the name Schnee her father had so heartlessly tarnished. A hand drifted up, thoughtlessly brushing against the scar the adorned her left eye. That dream had been crushed long ago alongside her weapon. Her eyes drifted from the view to her bed. She knew what resided beneath it. A cedar box with velvet lining, cradling the fragments of a rapier she once wielded.

 

    The coffin that held her hope.

 

    She longed for that weapon, the power she once wielded with it. She remembered that, feeling like she had held the world in her hand. She thought of how  _ Myrtenaster  _ had leveled the playing field, how even a diminutive woman, as weak as she felt she was, could stand against giants. All with the help of a weapon. A single, humorless laugh left her at that thought.  _ ‘Standing against giants…’ _ the irony of that thought burned. She still felt the blow that would be her downfall, the weight of an armored fist the size of her torso sending her flying. She remembered the weight of it bearing down on her as she faltered. 

 

    She remembered the steel of that beloved weapon creaking under the force and giving way. One misstep was all it had taken. She should’ve known, someone like her ought not to stand against monsters. Her shoulders sagged, and she decided she may as well try to get some sleep. Easing forward, she slipped onto her bed, above the covers, exhausted but not able to sleep. She didn’t bother donning her nightgown, and simply laid atop the covers, bare and cold. 

 

    When sleep didn’t come, she found her mind wandering again. Weiss looked to her nightstand, where sat a book of sorts. She remembered the day before, when she had wandered into the gym and found Ruby listening to one of the songs she had sung in her teenage years. A bitter smile found her lips as she looked at the book, a notebook filled with songs and poems she had written and never performed. They were too intimate, offered too thorough a look into her mind for her to allow others to hear. Still, she wrote them, wrote her heart into them. Almost without thinking, Weiss reached over and plucked the book up, and flipped to a clean page. A pen had been tucked there as a sort of bookmark, and so Weiss began to pen out her thoughts.

  
  


_ ‘I should be free now, _

_     ‘I should be fine. _

_     ‘But the life I fought for, _

_     ‘Still isn’t mine.’ _

 

    She all but slammed the book closed after that, frustrated with herself. She tossed the book haphazardly back onto the nightstand and rolled over. She felt bitter. She felt cold. Not for the first time she wondered where it all had gone wrong. Part of it was her fault, part of it was her father’s. A large part of it was the fault of others. A part of her wanted to blame her mother, but Weiss knew it wasn't her fault. She didn’t  _ want _ to die, she didn’t  _ want _ to be the catalyst that would tear Weiss asunder. Weiss knew that, but still her heart ached to blame her. She remembered the fire, the thunder that roared in her ears and the cry of sirens. She remembered her heart dropping into the pit of her stomach. She remembered the bomb. 

 

    She remembered the  _ White Fang _ .

 

    Bitterness and anger swept in to fill the hole in her heart that thought left, and all of it impotent. Weiss wanted to cry, but wouldn’t let herself. Her eyes screwed shut, and she begged herself to just  _ sleep _ .

 

    Sleep would come slowly, painfully, but eventually it would wash over Weiss and her day would finally come to an end. A part of her still held out hope that the next day would be better.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (Insert obligatory yet heartfelt apology for taking so damn long writing this chapter)
> 
> Alright, now that that’s out of the way, there are a few points I’d like to bring up.
> 
> 1) Herder: Several people spoke up in the comments on the last chapter to complain about my inclusion of Herder in this story. Some were just mad that I had a character who was a Mass Effect reference which is whatever, but a few had some valid concerns I wanted to address. Firstly, yes, Herder is a reference to Mass Effect, but guys, Mass Effect is something that’s very close to my heart and she serves as a bit of a love letter to that franchise. That said, her story has already been told, and will not take up much space here. Some were worried, justifiably, that I would use Herder as a new main character in this story, but fear not. This is Ruby and Weiss’s story, and Herder’s (who does have a little backstory in my head) is a bit of a smaller scale mirror of the story of Mass Effect that might very briefly get touched on much later down the line in dialogue, but it will be there to serve Ruby and Weiss’s story. Herder is a side character, as well as any other character I introduce, here to serve a purpose and nothing more. The focus won’t change, I’ll promise you that.
> 
>  
> 
> 2) Ruby: Additionally, several people brought up concerns about my portrayal of Ruby in this story. Some went as far to say she was out of character, which is fair. I want to remind you all, however, that this Ruby is not the same quirky 15-16 year old girl we know from the show. There’s a running trend in a lot of White Rose stories where Weiss’s life sucks and Ruby comes in and brightens it up. In a way, Ruby saves Weiss from herself. This isn’t that kind of story. Here, Ruby is not some kind of white knight who’s going to ride in and be there for Weiss, but rather that they both are very damaged people who will learn that they need each other to heal. Ruby’s damage is more under the surface that Weiss’s. Y’all already know Weiss’s issues because they are canon and have been portrayed in ten to the nth power stories, so you can see what her conflict is a mile away. Ruby’s conflict, though, is also psychological, but it's an issue that hasn’t been explored in the show and is probably noncanonical. Trust me here, and let me tell my story for better or worse. I know I’m not the most skilled author and I have trouble portraying some things, but Ruby is not crazy in this story. She’s just been conditioned to think and behave a certain way by Beacon, and it’s had an effect on her psyche. This will be addressed and explored in the future. Ruby and Weiss need to heal each other. As for the ‘voices’, as I said earlier, this is not my way of trying to portray Ruby as crazy. Its a side effect of her unorthodox training at Beacon. I tried my best to convey my meaning. All will be explained in time. Trust me.
> 
>  
> 
> 3) Name Change: I’m considering changing the name/summary of this story, so in 2046 or whenever I get around to posting the next chapter, if you see an alert for a story posted by yours truly that you don’t recognize, it’s probably this. I might make an announcement chapter a day or two before the change just so y’all know.
> 
> Don't forget to review! Those things are the lifeblood of this story, I cannot understate how influential they are in getting me to sit down and pen something out.
> 
> Also, forewarning, Timeskip incoming!
> 
> And with this, Ao3 is caught up with Fanfiction!
> 
> -Order


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